LONDON, July 4: Jana Novotna won her first Grand Slam title today, beating 16th-seeded Nathalie Tauziat in straight sets in the Wimbledon final.Finalist here in 1993 and 1997, Novotna made it third time lucky by beating her French opponent 6-4 7-6.India's Mahesh Bhupathi and Mirjana Lucic of Croatia moved into the final of the mixed doubles competition. They defeated the US pair of Justin Gimelstob and Venus Williams 6-4, 7-5. Meanwhile, Uzma Khan lost in the final round of the qualifying matches of the junior Wimbledon championship, according to reports reaching here. Uzma went down to Balachi of Great Britain in three tough sets at 3-6, 6-3, 5-7.Novotna won the toss and elected to receive, hoping for a nearly break, but it was the Czech who dropped serve first.Third-seeded Novotna clawed her way back from 0-40 in the second game but a delicate drop-shot from Tauziat a point late saw her get the break.The French 30-year-old could not make the most of the advantage, though, and she pushed abackhand long to put Novotna on the scoreboard.The break back seemed to settle Novotna and she comfortably held serve for 2-2. Games went with serve until at 3-3 Tauziat cracked. Staying on the baseline she allowed Novotna to attack her serve.Tauziat bravely fought off six break points but on her seventh Novotna crunched a high forehand volley past the Frenchwoman before punching the air in celebration.Novotna held for 5-3 with fluid serve and volley tennis while Tauziat looked hesitant, staying back on her serve and allowing Novotna to grasp the initiative.She managed to hold but Novotna, serving for the set at 5-4, made no mistake and closed it out in 43 minutes.The momentum was firmly with Novotna and she immediately broke Tauziat to take the lead in the second. She overcame three double faults in the next game to hold and made Tauziat struggle to get on the scoreboard a game later.Novotna's suspect nerves were on show again, though, and serving at 3-2 she double faulted to allow Tauziatto level.Urged on by the Duchess of Kent, Novotna regained her grip and pushed the set into a tie-break. This time it was Tauziat who felt the nerves and she missed a simple volley to give Novotna the mini-break.A spectacular backhand volley gave Novotna four match points but she needed only one as a forehand passing shot handed her the title.ResultsWomen's singles (final): 3-Jana Novtona (Czech Republic) bt 16-Nathalie Tauziat (France) 6-4 7-6Mixed doubles (quarter-finals): Paul Haarhuis (Netherlands)/Caroline Vis (Netherlands) bt Jeff Tarango (US)/Elena Likhovtseva (Russia) 6-2 7-5, Max Mirnyi (Belarus)/Serena Williams (US) bt Sandon Stolle (Australia)/Kristine Kunce (Australia) 7-5 5-7 6-4.
