Japan's Miyu Kato and Germany's Tim Puetz clinched the French Open mixed doubles title on Thursday, defeating Bianca Andreescu and Michael Venus 4-6, 6-4, [10-6] in the final, here.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
The French Open is Kato's first Grand Slam title and capped off an emotional week for the 28-year-old Japanese doubles specialist, who was disqualified from the women's doubles competition after inadvertently hitting a ball girl with a ball in the third-round match.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
"It has been really challenging for me for the past few days. I want to thank all the players, coaches, everyone for their heartfelt messages of support," Kato was quoted as saying by WTA.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Andreescu and Venus climbed from a break down to take the opening set (4-6) but Kato and Puetz struck back to level the match, taking the second set 6-4.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
The Japanese\/German duo built a 6-3 lead in the tiebreak after Venus struck a double-fault down 4-3 and Kato followed with courageous work at the net to extend the lead.<\/p>\r\n\r\n