Dubai: Timea Babos and Kristina Mladenovic got fourth time lucky as they powered past Garbine Muguruza and Carla Suarez-Navarro 6-3, 6-2 to pick up their first doubles title on the Tour at the Dubai Duty Free Women’s Open here on Saturday.
Babos and Mladenovic had reached three doubles finals in 2014 with no success but on Saturday, the French-Hungarian pair was unstoppable as they took less than an hour to lift their first doubles crown together. “We are just really delighted. We knew that at some point it will come because we are such good friends and we play amazing tennis together. So we are just extremely happy, and especially since we discussed to play together and have high goals and we are just enjoying on court and happy,” Babos told media.
Now with their first-ever title together, the pair trained their sights to even more glory on the WTA Tour. “Definitely this year we are playing a full schedule, a full year together, so it makes a huge difference because last year we only started with Wimbledon and then we made some huge results on big tournaments, Wimbledon or Cincinnati. Then of course our goal was to get in [Singapore at the year-ender],” Mladenovic said.
“But then I think this year it’s gonna be not easier because it’s never easy, but I hope with more tournaments we can build up easier our game together and a way to the finals,” she added.
On Saturday, Babos and Mladenovic seemed to be getting everything right. They got their first break in the second game on Suarez-Navarro’s serve for an early 2-0 lead. The Spaniards fought right back to draw level 2-2 but as the set progressed, Babos and Mladenovic not only showed a better understanding as a pair but started going for their shots. Despite having three double-faults, Babos served out the set 6-3 in just 30 minutes.
In the second set, they once again picked up Suarez-Navarro as the weak link as they registered their first break a 3-1 lead. Down on confidence, Muguruza too was broken in the seventh and Mladenovic had to just come and serve out the set and match 6-2 to earn the doubles crown as a pair.