Alongside Hungarian Timea Babos, the bronze medalist at the Tokyo Games defeated Chinese Hanyu Guo and American Nicole Melichar-Martinez for 2 sets to 1
The Brazilian won, this Saturday (24), its 11th WTA title. Alongside the Hungarian Timea Babos, the bronze medalist at the Tokyo Games defeated Chinese Hanyu Guo and the American Nicole Melichar-Martinez by 2 sets to 1, 6/3, 6/7 (4/7) and 10/7, 1:52 am in the Strasbourg Duplas final.
This was the duo’s second title of the season after the WTA 500 of Linz, at February. The Brazilian, 37th in the WTA pair ranking, played her 19th career final and won her first trophy on the clay “It’s amazing to go back here, a place where I feel at home,” said Stefani after the achievement. “I want to thank my partner, we keep learning, evolving and having fun together,” he added.
Interestingly, the pair only had to play two games to earn the title due to dropouts. The number 1 key heads and semifinal opponents, Gabriela Dabrowski and Erin Routliffe, abandon the tournament because of Dabrowski rib pain. Before, in the quarterfinals, Czech Marie Bouzkova, who would play with Alexandra Panova, felt injury to her left thigh and also withdrew.
More rested, Stefani and Babos played a more consistent match than the rivals on the French clay. In total, the victorious duo hit 74% in the first service against 70% of opponents and made only 8 unfeigned errors compared to 22 opponents. The duo started the departure ragging and opened 4 games at 0, but Guo and Melichar-Martinez reacted and reduced the difference. In the end, the aggressiveness of the Hungarian and Brazilian balls prevailed, which closed on 6/3.
In the second set, Stefani and Babos again started better, broke the service of the opponents and opened 3-0. Guo and Melichar-Martinez entered the game, gradually tied the match 4-4 and passed ahead, beating Tie-Break by 7/4.
Packed, the Chinese and the American took the lead at the beginning of the decisive partial, but the Brazilian duo recovered and turned the match to 3-2. The tie-break came to draw 7-7, but Stefani and Babos won the last three points and closed the game in 10 to 7.
*With information from Estadão Content
Posted by Nátaly Tenório
