Joe Salisbury and Desirae Krawczyk won their first major trophy as a mixed doubles partnership by defeating Aslan Karatsev and Elena Vesnina 2-6, 6-4, 10-5 on Court Philippe Chatrier.
The winning duo were outpowered in the first set but fought back valiantly before taking the title via a champions’ tiebreak.
Salisbury, who won the Australian Open Men’s doubles trophy in 2020, became the first British player in 39 years to lift a main draw trophy at Roland Garros while his American partner won her first-ever Grand Slam.
The last Briton to lift the French Open crown was John Lloyd in 1982 but Salisbury joked his partner was the main reason behind their success.
Salisbury said: “I just want to say to Des, it has been an incredible week for us and I don’t think we expected this.
“It has been so much fun playing with you and thanks for carrying me!”
Despite the pairs’ success, the duo will not be teaming up for the next major tournament at Wimbledon as Salisbury looks set to team up with Harriet Dart.
Salisbury explained: “I thought it would be good to have an all-British partnership for Wimbledon but I’m sure we’ll team back up again after.”
Barbora Krejcikova saves a match point before ousting Maria Sakkari to reach the final
The world No.33 Barbora Krejcikova caused yet another upset in the women’s draw by defeating the highest seed left in the tournament Maria Sakkari in an almighty three-set battle.
Both players were participating in their first Grand Slam semi-final and the nerves were evident as neither player was able to hold serve in the opening three games of the set.
However, it was Krejcikova who managed to compose herself the quickest and take the first set 7-5 by breaking the world No.18.
Though, the Greek came firing back and earned a double break at the beginning of the second set and despite Krejicikova managing to claw one back it was not enough to prevent Sakkari from levelling the scores at 1-1.
The world No.18 then looked in the drivers seat after forcing another break of serve early in the decider, however Krejcikova staved off a match point at 5-4 with a powerful backhand drive to keep herself within touch.
This forced Sakkari to serve out the match which the Greek was unable to do and the Czech brought the scores level once more.
Krejcikova was then the one to assert all the pressure and had three match points herself inat 7-7 which Sakkari managed to fend off.
However, after a swift hold of serve from the Czech before a further two match points eventually forced Sakkari to crumble under the pressure allowing Krejcikova to complete a 7-5, 4-6, 9-7 victory after three hours and 19 minutes on Court Phillipe Chatrier.
Joining the Czech in the final was the Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova who had far less drama on route to defeating Tamara Zidansek in straight-sets.
The world No.32 will also take part in her maiden Grand Slam final after seeing off Zidansek 7-5, 6-3 in one hour and 36 minutes.
The women’s final takes place on Saturday with a new Grand Slam champion guaranteed.
