Doubles Take: Rounding up Dubai, Delray Beach & more

In a new weekly feature, we’ll be recapping the weekend doubles finals from the ATP and WTA tours—Baseline-style, of course—with an added glance at the tournaments ahead.

At the Dubai Duty Free Championships, it seemed like Mother Nature was going to win the doubles final thanks to frequent rain. In the end, though, it was Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina who went home with the hardware, defeating Andrea Hlavackova and Peng Shui, 6-2, 4-6, 10-7.

The Russians captured their first title of the year together and ninth of their career.

At the Delray Beach Open, No. 2 seeds Raven Klaasen and Rajeev Ram entered the winner’s circle for the first time this year, defeating No. 3 seeds Treat Huey and Max Mirnyi in straights, 7-5, 7-5.

Finalists at the ATP World Tour Finals last year, Klaasen and Ram won their fourth career team title together.

“Hometown heroes” Julien Benneteau and Nicolas Mahut were crowned the champs at the Open 13 Marseille, taking the title 6-4, 6-7 (9), 10-5, over Robin Haase and Dominic Inglot.

For Benneteau and Mahut, it was their first time playing together in five years. A title definitely makes for a nice reunion.

You could understand if Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah thought of the courts at the Rio Open in Brazil as their own: The Colombians won the title in 2014 and 2016. Their efforts to win a third title came to a halt as they fell in a match tie-break to the team of Pablo Carreno Busta and Pablo Cuevas, 6-4, 5-7, 10-8.

Props to Carreno Busta, who had to hit the court only hours after rallying to make the singles final, which he lost to Dominic Thiem on Sunday. Still, not a bad weekend at all for the Spaniard.

Even though this team crashed out in the semifnals, this winning point from Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares deserves another look.

In 2014, Su-Wei Hsieh won the French Open with her partner Shuai Peng. Surprisingly, that was the last time the former world No. 1 in doubles took home a title.

The drought ended in the final of the Hungarian Ladies Open as she and her partner Oksana Kalashnikova beat Arina Rodionova and Galina Voskoboeva, 6-3, 4-6, 10-4.

The ATP Tour hits Dubai this week and the top seeds in doubles are Henri Kontinen and John Peers, the Aussie Open champs who have been dominating lately. The second seeds are the new pairing of Ivan Dodig and Marcel Granollers.

In Sao Paulo, Carreno Busta and Cuevas are going for their second title in a row.

The WTA Tour will be in Malaysia, with Chen Liang and Saisai Zheng leading the pack. Keep an eye out, though, for recently reunited Australians Ashleigh Barty and Casey Dellacqua.

Both tours are in Acapulco where Murray and Soares will try to find their winning rhythm as the top seeds, while Andreja Klepac and Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez are seeking their first title together.