Doubles Take: Rounding up Madrid

Welcome back to Doubles Take, your weekly round-up of teamwork in action on the ATP and WTA tours.

KEEPING IT 100

If you blinked, you might’ve missed them: At the WTA Premier Mandatory tournament in Madrid, the top two seeded teams—Bethanie Mattek-Sands/Lucie Safarova and Ekaterina Makarova/Elena Vesnina—both lost their opening matches.

That opened it up for the third-seeded pairing of Yung-Jan Chan and Martina Hingis, who took home the title with a straight-sets win over Timea Babos and Andrea Hlavackova. It’s Chan and Hingis’ second title of the year after winning in Indian Wells. The two—newly partnered this year—were facing a team coming off a win in Prague last week.

This was Hingis’ 100th title between singles and doubles. (She’s won multiple mixed Slams.) It was cause for celebration, and this pair could be going for a new title: post-victory dance champs, threatening the reign of Team Bucie.

Look, when you're putting in work like this, the titles are sure to come.

ANOTHER MASTERS CLASS

So far, there have been four ATP World Tour 1000 events played this season. Lucasz Kubot and Marcelo Melo have played in the finals of three of them.

Not a bad run for a duo that just started playing together this year. The Czech/Brazilian team added another Masters title to their tally with a win over Frenchmen Nicolas Mahut and Edouard Roger-Vasselin in Sunday’s final.

They won their first two matches in straight sets to reach the semifinals. There, they were scheduled to face singles stars Nick Kyrgios and Jack Sock, who had been beating established teams and wowing the crowds with hot shots all week.

However, Sock and Kyrgios pulled out of the semis, sending Kubot and Melo to the finals. In the championship match, Melo and Kubot continued their straight-sets victory streak. After the match, Melo paid tribute to moms for Mothers Day.

“I was thrilled to pay homage to my mother, everyone who knows me knows what she is to me, in fact, we all know how important mothers are in our lives," Melo wrote. "I love you / Happy Mother's Day for all mothers in Brazil!!!”

GET A RACQUET ON IT, GOOD THINGS CAN HAPPEN

Though they lost in the quarterfinals to Mahut and Vasselin, Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares didn’t go down without a fight—and a little magic. Check out this behind-the-back volley from Soares that caught the French team off guard:

A LOOK AHEAD

It’s another week, another major clay-court tournament as the tours turn to Rome this week. On the men’s side, all of the top teams will be there. Mahut will be back in action with his regular partner Pierre-Hugues Herbert, and Sock is teaming up with countryman John Isner. The Americans have already knocked off former Wimbledon champs Jean-Julien Rojer and Horia Tecau.

In the women's draw, Chan and Hingis are the second seeds, behind Makarova and Vesnina. Babos and Hlavackova will be looking to keep their strong run going from the No. 4 spot. Karolina Pliskova is seeded fifth in doubles with countrywoman Barbora Strycova.