Doubles joy for Aspelin and Knowle

Simon Aspelin and Julian Knowle captured their first Grand Slam doubles title with a 7-5 6-4 victory over Lukas Dlouhy and Pavel Vizner at the US Open today.

Playing in their first Grand Slam final together, Aspelin and Knowle avenged their loss to Dlouhy and Vizner in the round of 16 at the French Open earlier this year.

It is the first time either player has won a Grand Slam title.

Knowle finished as runner up at Wimbledon in 2004 with team-mate Nenad Zimonjic but finally broke through with Aspelin, who became the seventh Swede to capture a men’s doubles Grand Slam title – joining Stefan Edberg, Andres Jarryd, Joakim Nystrom, Mats Wilander, Nicklas Kulti and Jonas Bjorkman.

After winning three of the first four points in the final game, Vizner and Dlouhy rallied for the next two.

But Vizner was unable to deliver a backhand return on Aspelin’s serve on match point, hitting a lob wide.

Knowle fell to the ground with his arms raised, pumping his fists as he became the first Austrian to win a Grand Slam men’s doubles title in the Open Era.

Dlouhy and Vizner were on the losing end of a Grand Slam for the second time this year after falling at Roland Garros to Mark Knowles and Julian Nestor.