Congratulations to Fabrice Santoro for winning the Australian Open
men's doubles (with Michael Llodra) for the second year in a row.

1r + Raemon Sluiter/Martin Verkerk, 6-2 7-6 (7/5)
2r + Igor Andreev/Andrei Olhovskiy, 6-3 6-2
3r + Juan Ignacio Chela/Oscar Hernández, 6-3 3-6 6-4
qf + MAHESH BHUPATHI/MAX MIRNYI (2), 6-3 6-4
sf + GASTON ETLIS/MARTIN RODRIGUEZ (9), 6-2 7-5
f + BOB BRYAN/MIKE BRYAN (1), 7-6 (7/4) 6-3

Here's a report I found on www.australianopen.com:
>>>
Santoro and Llodra do the double
Saturday, 31 January, 2004
by Tim Brimblecombe

French duo Michael Llodra and Fabrice Santoro have completed a
successful defence of their Australian Open men's doubles title with
a 7-6 (7-4) 6-3 win over American brothers Bob and Mike Bryan in the
final.

The No.5 seeds took 84 minutes to overcome the No.1 seeds, who held
a 3-1 advantage over the Frenchmen before Australian Open 2004.

In the previous meeting between the two teams at the Tennis Masters
Cup in Houston just over two months ago, the American duo prevailed
in a tough five-set match.

It was the third straight year that Llodra and Santoro had reached
the Australian Open final.

The American pair went into the match having won 17 of their past 18
encounters and looked set to extend that record when they broke
early in the first set.

But the Frenchmen quickly responded to level at 4-all before they
were again under pressure, facing two set points at 15-40 in the
tenth game.

They recovered to level at 5-all and then had a chance to serve out
the set when they broke the Americans in the next game, only to be
broken themselves immediately after, forcing the tie-break.

Llodra's big left-hand serve proved crucial for the Frenchmen to
take the tie-break 7-4 and they took the momentum into the second
set for an early break and 3-1 lead.

The Bryans had a break chance, but they failed to convert leaving
the Frenchmen to serve out the for their second Grand Slam title.

To the amusement of the crowd the French pair celebrated their brace
of wins by taking most of their clothes off on court.

Santoro and Llodra's second Australian Open win is just the third
Grand Slam title by a French pair in the Open era, after Henri
Leconte and Yannick Noah combined to win the French Open in 1984.
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Photos:
http://search.news.yahoo.com/search/news/?c=news_photos&p=santoro

--
Dr. Andrew Broad
http://www.geocities.com/andrewbroad/
http://www.geocities.com/andrewbroad/tennis/
http://www.geocities.com/andrewbroad/tennis/seles/
http://www.geocities.com/andrewbroad/tennis/seles/selesians.html