Ex-LIer Lipsky wins French mixed doubles

Scott Lipsky, a former high school state tennis champion at Bellmore JFK, added a far more prestigious title to his resume Thursday when he and mixed doubles partner Casey Dellacqua won the French Open championship against defending champions Katarina Srebotnik and Nenad Zimonjic.

Originally from Merrick and now living in Huntington Beach, Calif., Lipsky, 29, and Dellacqua, a 26-year-old Australian, advanced to the finals without previously facing a seeded team. But faced with the top-seeded Srebotnik of Slovakia and Zimonjic of Serbia, Lipsky and Dellacqua prevailed by winning a super tie-break, 10-7, after splitting the first two sets.

Zimonjic, who had paired with Frenchman Michael Llodra of France to eliminate Lipsky (and partner Rajeev Ram) from the French men's doubles competition on Tuesday, saved one match point in Thursday's mixed finals before sending a forehand long. The 7-6 (6), 4-6, 10-7 victory was the first major title for both Lipsky and Dellacqua, who formed their mixed team only recently.

"You watch these matches on TV, and you wish that some day you can be there," Lipsky said at the postgame news conference in Paris. "To be on the stage, playing in a Grand Slam final, and to come out with a win and to say now, for the rest of my life, that I'm a Grand Slam champion, it's amazing. It hasn't sunk it. Hopefully, eventually it will."

Once ranked No. 1 in 16-and-under play, Lipsky played collegiately at Stanford and beat Andy Roddick in the U.S. Open Juniors' tournament in 1999. Lipsky turned pro in 2003, but after four years of singles play on the challenger tour, during which he never was ranked higher than 315th, he has stuck to doubles play.

Lipsky and Dellacqua, who will split $145,000, agreed to team up again at Wimbledon later this month.