Casey Dellacqua has teamed with Yaroslava Shvedova for the first time to capture the Mutua Madrid Open doubles title in a strong field.
At the beginning of the tournament, the story was that the two best teams of the year so far, Martina Hingis and Sania Mirza and Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Lucie Safarova, were on a collision course come the quarterfinals.
While the collision happened, with the No 7-seeded Mattek-Sands and Safarova prevailing over the world’s number one pair in a match tie-break, 6-7(5), 6-3, 11-9, the unseeded, first-time pairing of Dellacqua and Shvedova had successfully navigated their was through their side of the draw.
After stunning Mattek-Sands and Safarova in the semifinals, 7-5, 3-6, 10-7, the pair went one further in Saturday’s final, taking out No.3-seeded Spaniards Garbiñe Muguruza and Carla Suárez Navarro, 6-3, 6-7(4), 10-5.
The Madrid title is Dellacqua’s fourth, and biggest, doubles title on the WTA Tour and her most recent since and fellow Australian Ash Barty won Strasbourg last year.