Doubles Take: Rounding up Estoril, Prague & more

Doubles Take is back with a look back at a busy weekend on the ATP and WTA tours, along with a glance at what to expect in the days ahead.

BIRTHDAY BLING

American Ryan Harrison made the trip over to Europe early for the clay-court season, and it’s looking like that decision was a good one.

After reaching the singles quarterfinals of the Estoril Open, his first deep run since his title-winning run in Memphis, Harrison went on to capture the doubles title with New Zealand's Michael Venus. The duo knocked off top-seeded Robert Lindstedt and Sam Groth in the first round. In the final, Harrison and Venus took out Spaniards David Marrero and Tommy Robredo in straight sets, 7-5, 6-2.

It’s Venus’ sixth career doubles crown and Harrison’s third. Harrison had extra reason to celebrate as finals day also happened to be his 25th birthday.

SERVING UP BAGELS

Sometimes, everything happens to fall your way. Other times, not so much.

The final of the Istanbul Open couldn’t have gone more perfectly for Roman Jebavy and Jiri Vesely. The Czech tandem defeated wild cards Tuna Altuna and Alessandro Motti 6-0, 6-0. It was the first double bagel in an ATP final since the Acapulco doubles championship in 2010.

Still, it was a good week for Altuna and Motti, who each reached their first final of any sort on the main tour. That was the case for Jebavy, as well, and it couldn’t have gone any better for him.

MOROCCAN MAGIC

It’s been a good season so far for Andrea Hlackova. Then again, most seasons usually are for the Czech, who happens to be one of the best doubles players of her generation.

Playing in her fourth final of the year (one of them being the Australian Open), Hlackova won her second title of 2017, capturing the clay-court title in Rabat, Morocco with Timea Babos.

The duo didn’t drop a set in their first three matches, but lost the first one in the final against Nina Stojanovic and Maryna Zanevska. Babos and Hlackova rallied to take the second, then clinched the title in a match tiebreak.

FEELING BUBBLY

At the Prague Open, the draw went exactly as planned, with the four seeded teams each reaching the semifinals. In the final, though, the script was flipped as the second-seeded pairing of Anna-Lena Groenefeld and Kveta Peschke defeated top seeds Lucie Hradecka and Katerina Siniakova.

The home crowd had a definite rooting interest in the final with three Czechs playing in the title match. It was the German Groenefeld and Czech Peschke that came out on top, and it would be hard to write a more perfect ending for the veteran Peschke as she won her first title in three years..

Groenefeld definitely found the occasion worthy of a celebration.

A DRIVING FORCE

At the BMW Open in Munich, Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah solidified their status as being one of the best teams in the business—especially on clay.

“Colombian Power” won their second title of the year in their fourth final—all on the dirt—against Frenchmen Jeremy Chardy and Fabrice Martin.

Finalists at the tournament last year, the pair hit double digits in titles together, snagging their tenth crown. They were only pushed to the distance once during the week, in the semifinals against Brian Baker and Nikola Mektic, whom they lost to in the Budapest final last week.

A LOOK AHEAD

This week, the men and women are both in Madrid for one of the biggest clay-court tournaments of the season. On the men’s side, the top seeds are Henri Kontinen and John Peers, followed by Bob and Mike Bryan. Already, a couple of fan favorite pairings have won first-round matches: Tommy Haas and Max Mirnyi, and Nick Kyrgios and Jack Sock.

On the women’s side, Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Lucie Safarova are back in action as the top-seeded team. Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina are in the second spot. The third seeds, Sania Mirza and Yaroslava Shvedova, know how to compete on the biggest stages and could be a threat for the title, as well.