The duo, whose previous best Grand Slam performance was a semifinal showing at 2003 Wimbledon, converted two of ten break points and held their nerve in the tie-break to seal victory in one hour and 50 minutes.

Erlich/Ram, who won the title without the loss of a single set, were the first Israeli duo to appear in a Grand Slam final in the Open Era. The only other Israeli man to advance to a Grand Slam men’s doubles final in the Open Era was Shlomo Glickstein at 1985 Roland Garros, partnering Hans Simonsson.

En route to the final, Erlich and Ram defeated Kunitsyn/Tursunov, Lipsky/Martin, ninth seeds Cermak/Dlouhy, Gicquel/Santoro and sixth seeds Bhupathi/ Knowles.

Ranked 18 in the Stanford ATP Doubles Rankings, Erlich and Ram were appearing in just their first Grand Slam final at their 20th major. They had lost to Clement/Llodra in both previous meetings, including a US Open fourth round clash last year.

The Israeli pairing now have 11 career titles together, last season they were victorious in AMS Cincinnati and finished runners-up in Las Vegas, AMS Indian Wells and Washington.

This was Erlich and Ram’s sixth joint appearance at the Australian Open, and prior to this year they had never advanced past the fourth round, falling at that stage in 2005 and 2007.

The Israelis have now posted a 9-2 season thus far in 2008, reaching the semifinals in Adelaide (l. to Guccione/Smeets) and the quarterfinals in Sydney (l. to Bryan/Bryan) prior to the Australian Open.

2007 Wimbledon champions Clement and Llodra (pictured left) were appearing in their second Grand Slam together final in seven majors and were the fourth all-French pairing to reach the Melbourne final in the Open Era.

They reached the final without the loss of a set, including victories over No. 10 seeds Butorac/Ullyett in the third round and No. 2 seeds Nestor/Zimonjic in the quarterfinals.

World No. 17 Llodra is now a four-time finalist at the Australian Open, he won the title twice, in 2003 and 2004 with Fabrice Santoro. World No. 12 Clement, who reached the singles final in Melbourne in 2001, is the first player to reach the singles and doubles finals in a Grand Slam since Petr Korda who was doubles champion in 1996 and singles champion in 1998.