{"id":446986,"date":"2026-01-30T08:38:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T08:38:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/446986\/"},"modified":"2026-01-30T08:38:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T08:38:08","slug":"billionaire-bill-gates-attends-the-australian-open-mixed-doubles-final-as-olivia-gadecki-and-john-peers-go-back-to-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/446986\/","title":{"rendered":"Billionaire Bill Gates attends the Australian Open mixed doubles final as Olivia Gadecki and John Peers go back to back"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cAny chance I get to play in front of them now is really special,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHopefully, they can enjoy it as well. To be able to have them up in the crowd is fantastic. Just gives me that little bit extra drive to be able to have friends and family and have them so close as often as I can because, unfortunately, we don\u2019t get to have them every week on the road.\u201d<\/p>\n

Soon after the Aussies won the title, French opponent Kristina Mladenovic put Australian Open CEO Craig Tiley on the spot by publicly asking if it was his last tournament in charge.<\/p>\n

\"Paula<\/p>\n

Paula Hurd and Bill Gates have been watching matches at the 2026 Australian Open.Credit: Fiona Hamilton \/ Tennis Australia<\/p>\n

\u201cCraig, is it true that it is your last tournament in charge?\u201d she asked during the presentation ceremony.<\/p>\n

Loading<\/p>\n

Tiley, who has been strongly linked to taking on a new role running the US Open<\/a>, shook his head from side to side and mouthed the word, \u2018No\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know what your plans are in the future, but I want you to know that you have made this tournament great,\u201d Mladenovic said, changing tack.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope you stay, or the tournament is improving as always.\u201d<\/p>\n

When later asked if there was any truth to the rumour of Tiley\u2019s impending defection, Peers played a straight bat.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019d have to ask him,\u201d he said. \u201cI haven\u2019t spoken to him about it. See what unfolds, I guess.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tiley has declined to comment on speculation about his future.<\/p>\n

Peers indicated there was a strong chance that he and 23-year-old Gadecki would be back at Melbourne Park next year, shooting for three in a row.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d love to say yes now. So hopefully, we don\u2019t need a wildcard,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Gadecki said she would use the victory as a catalyst to improve her singles ranking from world No.172.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m hoping this gives me a bit of a boost for 2026,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m just enjoying being out there, you know, being on court, being healthy, happy.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s pretty incredible to be back-to-back grand slam winners. Even saying that out loud is crazy, and I\u2019m still trying to kind of comprehend it, but it\u2019s so nice to get it at home in front of friends and family.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo share this moment with Peersy is pretty incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n

With their win on Friday, Gadecki and Peers became the first pairing to win back-to-back Australian Open mixed doubles titles in 37 years.<\/p>\n

Read more on the Australian Open<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cAny chance I get to play in front of them now is really special,\u201d he said. \u201cHopefully, they…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":446987,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[64,63,85,747],"class_list":["post-446986","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446986","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=446986"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446986\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/446987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=446986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=446986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=446986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}