Doubles Take: New York, St. Petersburg & more

Teamwork makes the dream work: Doubles Take is here with a look at the latest from the ATP and WTA tours.

NEW YORK’S FINEST

The New York Open just so happened to be anyone’s ballgame: None of the four seeded teams made it out of the first round. It was the perfect situation for Dominic Inglot and Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi, a couple of veterans who know how to take advantage when the right situation presents itself.

Fresh off a runner-up finish in Montpellier, France, the duo broke through with its first title together, defeating the all-American team of Steve Johnson and Reilly Opelka in the final. At the trophy presentation, Johnson happened to let the crowd know who was to blame for this particular result.

AUSSIES RULE IN THAILAND

Either way, the final went at the Hua Hin Championships in Thailand, an Australian was going to be crowned champion. It wasn’t meant to be for Ellen Perez, though, as she and her Austrian partner Barbara Haas fell to Perez’s countrywomen Storm Sanders and Arina Rodionova in the final.

After six runner-up finishes, Rodionova finally broke through with her first career title, while Sanders claimed her second.

FROM RUSSIA, WITH LOVE

Last October, Ena Shibahara and Shuko Aoyama closed out their 2019 campaign with the title at the Kremlin Cup in Moscow. Making a return to Russia this past week as the top seeds at the St. Petersburg Ladies’ Trophy, the Japanese pair kept their winning ways going in the nation.

The duo topped Kaitlyn Christian and Alexa Guarachi for their third title together, with the other one also coming last October at the Tianjin Open in China.

TWO OUT OF THREE AIN’T BAD

After winning the ATP 500-level event in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, in 2018, Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut chose not to defend their title last year. Making a return to the tournament this year, the French duo picked up where they left off.

Herbert and Mahut, the second seeds, grabbed their first title of the year, beating Henri Kontinen and Jan-Lennard Struff in a match tiebreak. For Mahut, it’s his fourth title overall at the tournament.

THE HOMETOWN HERO

Horacio Zeballos of Argentina won the first doubles title of his career a decade ago in Buenos Aires, partnering countryman Sebastian Prieto. Kicking off a new decade with teammate Marcel Granollers, the run of success at the Argentina Open has continued.

Zeballos won the title for the third year in a row as he and Granollers beat the all-Argentine pair of Guillermo Duran and Juan Ignacio Londero in the final. The champs, who teamed up for the first time at the Canada Masters last year—which they won—have now picked up their first victory together on clay.

THIS WEEK

The WTA has one event on the calendar and it’s a big one: the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships. The top seeds are the defending champs, and this year’s Australian Open finalists, Barbora Strycova and Su-Wei Hsieh, followed by Latisha and Hao-Ching Chan.

The men have three tournaments on tap again this week. At the Rio Open, top seeds Robert Farah and Juan Sebastian Cabal reunited after Farah’s suspension, but lost their opening match. Indoors in Marseille, France, Kevin Krawietz and Andreas Mies will try to establish some consistency and bounce back from another first-round loss, coming off their early exit in Rotterdam. Outdoors, the Delray Beach Open in Florida will see Bob and Mike Bryan make their final appearance at the tournament they’ve won five times, including last year.