Doubles Take: The WTA Finals, Basel and Vienna

The women’s last big event of the season crowned its champs, while the men race to qualify for London.

SENSATIONAL IN SINGAPORE

At the WTA Finals in Singapore, some of the biggest news of the week was that world No. 1 Martina Hingis was going to retire. Her run at the tournament ended in the semifinals as she and Yung-Jan Chan fell to Timea Babos and Andrea Hlavackova.

The best team this fall didn’t stop there as they went on to capture the title, defeating the eighth-seeded pairing of Kiki Bertens and Johanna Larsson, 4-6, 6-4, (10-5).

It was a battle from start to finish, the chamionps said.

Being battle-tested and accustomed to winning helped in the tight moments. This was their fifth final since the US Open and fourth title. They also won their first title together on clay in Morocco back in May.

For Babos, it’s the biggest title of her career. Hlavackova—a two-time Grand Slam champ in women’s doubles—wins the year-end event for the first time, having reached the final previously in 2012.

A RETURN TO THE WINNERS’ CIRCLE

Rohan Bopanna and Pablo Cuevas have definitely had their “feast-or-famine” moments this year. While they won the Monte Carlo title, the duo also lost in the first round of a tournament six times.

The indoor tournament in Vienna, provided one of those winning moments for the team. They fought off two match points in the final to beat Marcelo Demoliner and Sam Querrey.

BACK-TO-BACK IN BASEL

Playing their first final together since the Italian Open in May, Ivan Dodig and Marcel Granollers took home the Swiss Indoors title in Basel with a straight-sets victory over Fabrice Martin and Edouard Roger-Vasselin.

The tournament certainly seems to agree with Granollers as the Spaniard won the doubles title for the second year in a row, having partnered with Jack Sock last year.

A LOOK AHEAD

With one spot left for the ATP World Tour Finals in London, the men are playing their last regular-season event of the year. The Paris Masters field is led by Henri Kontinen and John Peers, the defending champions who claimed their first ATP Masters 1000 title at the tournament last year. Perhaps the hottest team in the field, Kontinen and Peers will look to bounce back from a first-round loss in Switzerland last week.

Lukasz Kubot and Marcelo Melo, the second seeds will try to win their first title since Wimbledon. Basel winners Dodig and Granollers—who must reach the final in Paris to qualify for London—face Diego Schwartzman and Fernando Verdasco in their opening match. Vienna champs Bopanna and Cuevas play Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah in a battle between two strong unseeded teams.

For the women, the season comes to a wrap with the WTA Elite Trophy in Zhuhai. Six teams make up the field, with this year’s Hobart winners Raluca Olaru and Olga Savchuk as the top seeds.

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