The Czech-Taiwanese duo beat Kiki Bertens and Ashleigh Barty in the final, rallying from the brink of defeat to claim their sixth title together.
THIS WEEK
In on-court news, the Adelaide men’s draw sees Jurgen Melzer partnering up with Edouard Roger-Vasselin, while Oliver Marach—who had a successful second half of 2019 with Melzer—played with Raven Klaasen, but they lost to the second seeds Lukasz Kubot and Marcelo Melo already. Klaasen’s partner of the past two years, Michael Venus, is playing in his home country of New Zealand with Australia’s John Peers this week. They’re the top seeds in Auckland, followed by Mate Pavic and Bruno Soares. The third-seeded team there is Henri Kontinen and Rohan Bopanna, an intriguing pairing given that Kontinen and Peers had consistently been one of the best teams on the ATP tour the past several seasons.
Shifting things around aren’t always due to seeking a fresh start: Sometimes, it’s a matter of necessity, and the Adelaide women’s draw is a sure sign of that. The veteran German Anna-Lena Groenefeld retired at the end of last year, leaving Demi Schuurs without a partner. The Dutch standout is playing for the second week in a row with Kveta Peschke, who’d been competing with Nicole Melichar the past two years, reaching the Wimbledon final in 2018. Melichar is the top seed in Adelaide with Yifan Xu, with Peschke and Schuurs following them. Gabriela Dabrowski—who reached the top four in the world with Xu—is seeded third at the tournament with Darija Jurak. All three of those teams have advanced to the quarterfinals so far.
Over at the WTA stop in Hobart this week, the partnerships are much more stable. There’s been a surprise already, though, as the top seeds Latisha and Hao-Ching Chan dropped their opening match. Perhaps more newsworthy is the return of Sania Mirza to action as the former world No. 1 is playing her first tournament since taking time off to become a mother. Mirza and Nadiia Kichenok are through to the quarterfinals after a hard-fought first-round win.