Slovakia's Filip Polasek (left) and Croatia's Ivan Dodig kiss their trophy after defeating Rajeev Ram of the US and Britain's Joe Salisbury in the men's doubles final at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia, Sunday, Feb. 21, 2021. (source: AP/TASR)
Slovak Filip Polášek and Croatian player Ivan Dodig beat Britain’s Joe Salisbury and American partner Rajeev Ram 6-3 6-4 in men’s doubles final of the Australian in Melbourne on February 21.
This is the first Grand Slam title in the Polášek’s career, while he became the first Slovak male Grand Slam champion in the history.
“Congratulations to Joe and Rajeev for a great tournament, they were really good rivals,” said Polášek, 35, as cited by the Sme daily. “Thanks also to the organisers of the Australian Open, who made a great effort to make the event possible at all.”
The victory brings Polášek and Dodig a financial reward of $600,000 and 2,000 points in rankings.The victory brings Polášek and Dodig a financial reward of $600,000 and 2,000 points in rankings.
Slovak tennis players have already been in the Australian Open finals. Daniela Hantuchová made it in 2002 and 2009 in the doubles, and Dominika Cibulková played in the singles finals in 2014.
Back in 2016, A Slovak tennis player in the junior category, Tereza Mihalíková, won the doubles at the Australian Open with Anna Kalinska, while also making it to the finals in singles. She won the singles tournament in 2015.
