Lipsky Clinches Mixed Doubles Crown at French Open

In front of a center court crowd Thursday at the French Open, Scott Lipsky was named a mixed doubles champion.

Teaming up with Casey Dellacqua of Australia in the mixed doubles final against No. 1 seed and defending champions Katarina Srebotnik of Slovenia and Nenad Zimonjic, Lipsky held serve throughout the match and came up with some clutch volleys in the match tiebreaker to pull off a monumental 7-6, 4-6, 10-7 upset.

“You watch these matches on television and you wish that someday you can be there,” Lipsky said. “To be on this stage playing a Grand Slam final and to come out with a win and to say now for the rest of my life that I’m a Grand Slam champion, it’s amazing. It hasn’t sunk in. Hopefully, eventually it will.”

Lipsky, a three-time state tennis champion at Kennedy High School and a gold medalist for the Long Island team at the Junior Maccabi Games, attacked the net from the beginning of the match, putting pressure on both Srebotnik and Zimonjic. Srebotnik lost her serve at 3-3, but Dellacqua was broken while serving for the set at 5-4.

In the first-set tiebreaker, Zimonjic began to misfire on his groundstrokes, giving the Aussie-American pair an early 3-1 lead. A botched forehand from Lipsky on their first set point leveled the match at 6-6, but a volley error from Srebotnik wrapped up the opening set.

“You’ve got to be aggressive all week and I think we did that on the big points,” Dellacqua said. “We didn’t lose a tiebreak throughout the tournament.”

Racing out to a 2-0 lead in the second set, the pressure of clinching a Grand Slam started to hit the Aussie-American duo. Dellacqua dropped her serve to give the break back, while Lipsky was unable to capitalize on several break point opportunities. A second break of Dellacqua’s serve in the second set allowed Srebotnik to comfortably serve it out and bring the match to the final super-tiebreaker.

Down 6-4 in the final tiebreak, Dellacqua saved her best tennis for the match, rattling off four straight winners to give them an 8-6 lead. Three points later, a backhand sent long from Zimonjic wrapped up the match.

“We wanted to walk off the court knowing that we went for it,” Dellacqua said.

Since graduating from Stanford University in 2003 as a three-time All-American player, Lipsky has spent much of his time on the challenger circuit, the equivalent of the minor leagues in baseball. In his first eight years as a pro, he averaged around $55,000 a year while traveling around the world to compete in lower level tournaments.

“You’re just trying to eke out a living,” Lipsky said. “You have to wonder what you’re doing sometimes when you’re playing in these small towns in Mexico for very little money with no crowds.”

However, Lipsky saved his best tennis for the age of 29, when many of his contemporaries have long since retired. He has racked up seven titles so far this year, including a Masters series event in Barcelona last month, and reached his first Grand Slam quarterfinal this week in the men’s doubles event with fellow American Rajeev Ram.

“Everything has started to click this year,” Lipsky said. “Casey and I are going to team up at Wimbledon, so hopefully we can keep the momentum going.”

Lipsky is projected to rise into the top 30 of the ATP Doubles rankings for the first time in his career this Monday.