Doubles Take: Rounding up the French Open

Another Slam is in the books as Doubles Take looks back at the fortnight in Roland Garros and gets ready for something new underfoot.

ONE STEP CLOSER TO THE ‘BUCIE SLAM’

Winning Grand Slams is almost second nature now for Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Lucie Safarova. Still, though, going into this year’s French Open, they weren’t exactly a clear-cut favorite. The pair won the Volvo Car Open on green clay in the U.S. but came up empty when the bulk of the clay-court stretch hit Europe. So many other teams played well on the dirt leading up to the French Open, among them Yung-Jan Chan and Martina Hingis and Ashleigh Barty and Casey Dellacqua.

“Team Bucie” showed that they can never be counted out at a major. They handled those two teams with ease in the semifinals and final, respectively, to capture their fifth Grand Slam together and third in a row dating back to last year. And, in true Bucie fashion, they had a little fun post-victory.

At Wimbledon, they’ll try to clinch their fourth Slam in a row and go for the “Bucie Slam.”

RISING ABOVE THE ASHES

The men’s doubles draw at Roland Garros was hit hard. The top two seeds were knocked out in the first round. The third- and fourth-seeded teams were eliminated in round two. The final would end up contested between Ryan Harrison and Michael Venus, and Donald Young and Santiago Gonzalez.

After two tough tiebreak sets, the deciding frame went to Harrison and Venus. It’s the second title of the season for the longtime friends, and continues a strong 2017 campaign for Harrison.

FEELS LIKE THE FIRST TIME

What a year it’s been for Gabriela Dabrowski: In April, the Canadian won her first Premier Mandatory title in Miami with Yifan Xu. This latest “first,” though, might be her most impressive one: the first Canadian female to win a Grand Slam title. Dabrowski and Rohan Bopanna won the mixed doubles title over Anna-Lena Gronefeld and Robert Farah.

Not to be outdone, it’s the first Grand Slam title for doubles stalwart Bopanna, too. He joins his compatriots Leander Paes, Mahesh Bhupathi and Sania Mirza as major title winners from India.

A LOOK AHEAD

And just like that, it’s turf time. The grass-court stretch kicks off in earnest this week, as the ATP and WTA both have two tournaments on the schedule. In Stuttgart, the top seeds are Bob and Mike Bryan, who are no doubt eager to right the ship on this season, and the second seeds are Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares. There’s already been an upset as Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi and Florin Mergea, the third seeds, lost to the home favorites Tommy Haas and Florian Meyer.

In s-Hertogenbosch, Lukasz Kubot and Marcelo Melo are leading the field on the men’s side. Second seeds Raven Klaasen and Rajeev Ram are through to the second round. Dutch player Jean-Julien Rojer is out there with his regular partner Horia Tecau in the No. 3 spot.

On the women’s side, Timea Babos and Andrea Hlavackova are the top seeds. The second-seeded all-Dutch team of Kiki Bertens and Demi Schuurs is already through to the quarterfinals.

The women are also playing in Nottingham, where French Open mixed doubles champ Gabriela Dabrowski and her partner Olga Savchuk are the top seeds. Darija Jurak and Anastasia Rodionova are the second seeds, while French Open finalist Casey Dellacqua is partnering with Hao-Ching Chan.