Mahesh Bhupathi won his first Grand Slam title in nearly three years when he and Mary Pierce of France triumphed in the mixed doubles at the Wimbledon Tennis Championships in London on Sunday.
The 30-year-old Indian doubles ace, who won the Wimbledon 'mixed' and US Open men's doubles titles in 2002, and two-time Grand Slam singles winner Pierce defeated Paul Hanley of
Australia and Tatiana Perebiynis of Ukraine 6-4, 6-2 on Centre Court.
The Indo-French pair, playing their second match of the day, dominated the 54-minute final, forcing an early break in the first set before winning it in 28 minutes.
The second set also followed a similar pattern as Bhupathi and Pierce overpowered their opponents making full use of their rich experience.
Earlier, in the semi-finals, the pair upset the third seeds Jonas Bjorkman of Sweden and Lisa Raymond of the United States, winning 7-5, 6-1.
Hanley and Perebiynis got the better of fourth seeds Kevin Ullyett of Zimbabwe and Liezel Huber of South Africa 6-3, 6-4 in the other semi-final.
Bhupathi's Grand Slam titles:
1997: French Open mixed doubles with Rika Hiraki of Japan
1999: French Open and Wimbledon men's doubles with Leander Paes
1999: US Open mixed doubles with Ai Sugiyama of Japan
2001: French Open men's doubles with Paes
2002: Wimbledon mixed doubles with Elena Likhovtseva of Russia
2002: US Open men's doubles with Max Mirnyi
2005: Wimbledon mixed doubles with Mary Pierce.
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