Olivia Gadecki and John Peers are one match away from becoming the first pair to win back-to-back mixed doubles Australian Open titles since 1989.
The Aussie wildcards triumphed over fourth seeds Taylor Townsend and Nikola Metkic in a thrilling 7-6(2) 2-6 (13-11) semifinal.
Gadecki and Peers are the first reigning Australian Open mixed doubles champions to return to the final the following year since Kristina Mladenovic and Daniel Nestor in 2015.
They will face Mladenovic and Manuel Guinard in the final.
“It’s incredible, when you start hearing some of those records, you pinch yourself a little bit,” Peers said of the chance to complete a 37-year first.
“Our job first of all was to get ourselves to the final, and now we’ll relax … get set for Friday. Hopefully, we can bring our best stuff right at the end.”
Gadecki, who was born 13 years after Jim Pugh and Jana Novotna went back to back in 1988 and 1989, said the achievement “would be pretty special”.
“To break up a couple of records and get the Gadecki name out there would be pretty cool,” she said.
The Aussie fans on Margaret Court Arena gasped and held on with bated breath as the match hung in the balance in the third-set match tiebreak, with Gadecki’s heroics at key moments proving decisive.
The 56th-ranked doubles player struck a passing forehand to secure the minibreak at 5-4, then later topped it by using her instincts to read the movement and fire a dazzling crosscourt forehand to set up an 11-10 lead.
After Metkic painted the line with a forehand volley to level the match at 11-11, Gadecki hit a clutch ace for match point, with a Metkic double-fault closing it out.
“I just said to Liv, keep hanging around, keep putting it out there, and we kept giving ourselves a good chance. We were lucky enough that for most of the tiebreak we always had the minibreak up,” Peers said.
Gadecki was all smiles in the post-match interview when asked about a missed sitter at the net that could have sealed the match.
“It wasn’t my finest moment!” she joked.
“I was just trying to tell myself I’ve got to redeem it a little bit. I had to laugh it off, otherwise I felt like I wasn’t going to come back from that.
“Peersy just told me to keep backing myself and enjoy the moment, and that’s exactly what I did.”
Should the Aussies complete the title defence, Peers would add a fourth major doubles crown to his trophy cabinet, having previously won the mixed doubles title at the US Open in 2022 and the men’s doubles crown at the Australian Open in 2017.
A former world No.2, the 37-year-old has claimed 30 career ATP doubles titles, along with a gold medal at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games and bronze at Tokyo 2020.
The last all-Australian pair to defend a mixed doubles title at any Grand Slam was Margaret Court and Ken Fletcher in 1964 — a piece of history Gadecki and Peers now stand on the brink of rewriting.