Melbourne - South Africa's Raven Klaasen and his American partner Eric Butorac finished as runners-up at the Australian Open after they were outclassed by Poland's Lukasz Kubot and Sweden's Robert Lindstedt in their men's doubles final on Saturday.
Kubot and Lindstedt posted a 6-3, 6-3 win over Klaasen and Butorac, securing their first Grand Slam as a team.
"Congratulations to Lucas and Robert they played an outstanding match today, well done guys," Klaasen said after the match.
"My partner Eric, that was a fun ride, obviously a start of a lot more to come.
"I'm not gonna take to much time, I want to thank those guys up there, my family. I wanna thank our box up there who's been in our corner all week, they've done a great job in keeping us alive, keeping us motivated.
"I want to thank the country back home, there's been so much support from South Africa, thanks to everyone back there, friends, family, media you guys have been awesome, thanks a lot guys."
Klaasen and Butorac had accounted for four seeded pairings on their way to the final, including a memorable success over top seeds and world number one-ranked Bob and Mike Bryan.
Results from the Australian Open on Saturday (x denotes seeding):
Women's singles
Final
Li Na (CHN x4) bt Dominika Cibulkova (SVK x20) 7-6 (7/3), 6-0
Men doubles
Final
Lukasz Kubot (POL)/Robert Lindstedt (SWE x14) bt Eric Butorac (USA)/Raven Klaasen (RSA) 6-3, 6-3
Boy's singles
Final
Alexander Zverev (GER x1) bt Stefan Kozlov (USA x2) 6-3, 6-0
Girl's singles
Final
Elizaveta Kulichkova (RUS x4) bt Jana Fett (CRO) 6-2, 6-1