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Sithole wins Australian Open doubles title

Melbourne - South Africa's Lucas Sithole has won the wheelchair tennis quad doubles title at the Australian Open tennis tournament on Thursday in Melbourne.

Sithole and partner, American former world No 1 David Wagner, turned back the clock to serve past second seeds Andy Lapthorne (GBR) and Dylan Alcott (AUS) 6-1, 6-3 in a 1-hour battle at Melbourne Park.

It was Sithole’s first Grand Slam doubles title.

“I enjoyed the match very much. It was great to play with David Wagner, it was our first match together and it was easy to play with him. I am extremely excited for taking the doubles title and again winning against Andy Lapthorne today,” said an excited Sithole.

After losing to Wagner in his opener on Wednesday, the South African world No 3 survived a three-setter test against Lapthorne in the quads singles, edging out the Brit 2-6, 6-1, 6-0 to keep his dream of securing a singles title alive.

The country’s top women player Kgothatso Montjane, put up a fight on Wednesday against Aniek van Koot of the Netherlands in the women’s singles, but the Dutch player snatched a 7-6, 7-5 win to knock out the world No 8.

Montjane suffered another loss on Thursday after she joined forces with German partner Sabine Ellerbrock and went down 6-4, 7-5 against second seeds Marjolein Buis and Yui Kamiji in the first round of the women doubles competition.

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