Doubles Take: Birmingham, Halle & more

Four of the best teams in the business finally re-entered the winners’ circle, plus a stalwart steps down: It’s all in this week’s Doubles Take.

THE FANTASTIC FOUR DUOS

"Patience is a virtue."

"Good things come to those who wait."

More than likely, the champions  from the past weekend on the ATP and WTA tours never want to hear those words again.

The top-five-ranked duos can now get ready for Wimbledon with their confidence fully intact. Here's a look back at what went down.

In Halle, Marcelo Melo and Lukasz Kubot—who went undefeated on grass last year—defended their title, beating Alexander and Mischa Zverev in the final. It’s Melo and Kubot’s first victory since January in Sydney.

Timea Babos and Kristina Mladenovic, whose most recent title came at the Australian Open this year, topped Demi Schuurs and Elise Mertens in the final in Birmingham.

Henri Kontinen and John Peers—who also hadn’t won a title since January in Australia, when they took the first-place prize in Brisbane—beat defending champs Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares in the Queen’s Club championship match in London.

Andreja Klepac and Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez, who defeated Lucie Safarova and Barbora Stefkova for the Mallorca Open title, had the other three weekend winners beat: They hadn’t won since September 2017 in Tokyo.

NEWS & NOTES

Scott Lipsky, who won 16 doubles titles and reached a personal-best of 21 in the world, is calling it a career.

Players past and present wished the Stanford alum well in his next chapter. Here are some reactions from a few of them.

Ryan Harrison had this to say.

Recent retiree Casey Dellacqua, who won the 2011 French Open mixed doubles championship with Lipsky, also chimed in.

Former partner Rajeev Ram, who won three titles with Lipsky, was looking to take the court with him again—on opposite sides of the net.

A LOOK AHEAD

Wimbledon will be here before we know it and some teams are making sure they get their last licks in before the main event. Both tours are competing in Eastbourne, and on the men’s side, top seeds Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah are through to the quarterfinals. Defending champ Mike Bryan is there while brother Bob is sidelined, teaming up with fellow American Jamie Cerretani.

Speaking of defending champs, Latisha Chan—who won the women’s title last year with Martina Hingis—is already out as she and Shuai Peng dropped their opening match. The top seeds are French Open semifinalists Andrea Hlavackova and Barbora Strycova.

At the ATP stop in Antalya, Turkey, Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi and Jean-Julien Rojer lost their first-round match against Roman Jebavy and Julio Peralta. Qureshi and Rojer, former partners who’ve teamed up while Rojer’s regular teammate Horia Tecau is out with injury, have had some ups and downs: This is the second week in a row they’ve lost their opening match. The second seeds are Max Mirnyi and Philipp Oswald, who have a 2-2 mark on the grass so far this year.

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