Finally Trophy Time
Published April 11, 2010 12:00
Sunday's title-winning doubles teams in Ponte Vedra Beach and Marbella had recorded impressive results in the past, but neither duo had hoisted trophies together.
See how Sunday's titlists stack up on the latest Doubles Rankings!
However, Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Yan Zi got on the title board at the MPS Group Championships with a 46 64 108 victory over Chuang Chia-Jung and Peng Shuai in the final. The top-seeded Mattek-Sands and Yan rallied from 64 20 down against the second-seeded Chuang and Peng, and fought back from a 4-1 deficit in the match tie-break.
"I was very nervous and not moving well at the beginning of the match," said Yan, who secured her 17th career Sony Ericsson WTA Tour doubles title. "But I was more aggressive in the match tie-break. They were so consistent, so I had to take action."
It was just Mattek-Sands and Yan's fourth career event together, but not their first noteworthy showing, as they took a set off the Williams sisters in their quarterfinal loss to the eventual champs at January's Australian Open and were semifinalists last month in Indian Wells.
"From the beginning, all the way back to Australia, we played really well, communicated really well and had a lot of fun," said Mattek-Sands, who now has seven Tour doubles titles, including a previous one at this event in 2008 when it was in Amelia Island. "I think that's the biggest thing in doubles is keeping it relaxed."
Meanwhile, at the Andalucía Tennis Experience, third-seeded Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci had a much easier path to the title. The Italians did not drop a set all week, including in their 64 62 win in the final over unseeded Maria Kondratieva and Yaroslava Shvedova.
Errani and Vinci had significant success in their three previous career events together (not including Fed Cup), having been semifinalists in Hobart in January, runners-up in Acapulco in February and semifinalists in Monterrey in March.
Errani now has three Tour doubles titles, while Vinci has four.
