Mahesh Bhupathi and Sania Mirza win French Open mixed doubles crown

India's Sania Mirza and Mahesh Bhupathi won the mixed doubles title at the 2012 French Open on June 7, beating Santiago Gonzalez of Mexico and Klaudia Jans-Ignacik of Poland 7-6 (7-3), 6-1 in the final at Court Philippe Chatrier.

The seventh-seeded Indians started sloppily, dropping serve early, but clawed back to take the first set in a tiebreak before running away with the second. It was the pair's second Grand Slam title together — they had won the 2009 Australian Open and finished runners-up there in 2008, making Paris their third major final as a team.

The victory was the second career Grand Slam title for Mirza and the 12th major trophy for Bhupathi, his eighth in mixed doubles. Mirza had become the first Indian woman to win a Grand Slam with the 2009 Australian Open crown; Paris extended her record.

Indian fans hoping for an all-Indian final were denied one by the semifinals: Leander Paes, partnering Russia's Elena Vesnina, lost to Gonzalez and Jans-Ignacik the previous day, while Bhupathi and Mirza beat Kazakhstan's Galina Voskoboeva and Daniele Bracciali of Italy to reach the title match.

For Mirza, the Roland Garros crown was another marker of her pivot toward doubles after persistent wrist injuries complicated her singles career — a move that was paying off. For Bhupathi, long one of the world's elite doubles players, it was one more chapter in a career built on longevity, net craft, and an instinct for the geometry of the doubles court.

Tennis Grand Slam victories remain rare enough for India that the title generated genuine national attention — and a second major for the Bhupathi-Mirza pairing cemented it as one of the most successful Indian combinations in the sport's history.