Doubles Take: Newport, Gstaad Bucharest & more

There’s plenty to unpack in this week’s Doubles Take, so let’s get to it, shall we?

A MOTHER’S DAY IN JULY

Moms on the WTA Tour continue to make headlines, and this time it was Andreea Mitu of Romania’s turn.

Teaming up with countrywoman Irina-Camelia Begu, the partners gave the home crowd something to cheer about with a run to the title in Bucharest. For Mitu, it was her first title since giving birth to her son this January.

A “HALL” OF AN EFFORT

Fresh off quarterfinal runs at Wimbledon with different partners, Jonathan Erlich and Artem Sitak continued their solid run on grass in Newport, R.I., at the Hall of Fame Championships.

It’s the 20th title for Erlich, the 2008 Australian Open champ with longtime partner Andy Ram, and the fourth for Sitak.

DUTCH DOMINANCE

It was a great week for Robin Haase in Umag, Croatia. Not only did he reach the semifinals in singles, but he also captured the doubles title with countryman Matwe Middelkoop.

It’s the third title of the year for the Dutch duo, and their first since February.

SENSATIONAL IN SWITZERLAND

In an upset-filled draw, two unseeded teams met for the title at the Ladies Championship Gstaad as Desirae Krawczyk and Alexa Guarachi took on Lara Arruabarrena and Timea Bacsinszky. As they did for most of the week, Krawczyk and Guarachi rallied from a set down in the final for victory.

It’s the first title for both Guarachi and Krawczyk.

HOW SWEDE IT IS

Playing in their eighth career final together—and first of 2018—Julio Peralta and Horacio Zeballos stopped Fabio Fognini from a singles-doubles sweep in Sweden.

The duo stopped Fognini and his partner Simone Bolelli in the championship match to improve their finals record to 5-3.

A LOOK AHEAD

So. Many. Tournaments. For the second week in a row, five events are on the schedule between the two tours. The North American summer hard-court swing officially kicks off in Atlanta, where the top seeds at the ATP event are Wimbledon quarterfinalists Divij Sharan and Artem Sitak. Ryan Harrison, the singles runner-up last year, and Rajeev Ram are the second seeds. Nicholas Monroe and John-Patrick Smith, the third seeds, are through to the quarters after winning their first-round match.

There are two clay-court events happening this week for the men, too. At the 500-level event in Hamburg, Germany, top seeds Oliver Marach and Mate Pavic will look to resume their winning ways. There’s already been an upset as three seeds Nikola Mektic and Alexander Peya dropped their opener to David Marrero and Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi. In Gstaad, Switzerland, top seeds Robin Haase and Matwe Middelkoop—fresh off the plane, pretty much, from Umag—have already kicked off their campaign with a win.

The WTA has a pretty big clay-court event on tap in Moscow, where the top seeds are Xenia Knoll and Johanna Larsson, both of whom will be going for their first title of the year. The second seeds are Veronika Kudermetova of Russia and Belarus’ Fed Cup standout Lidziya Marozava. Over in Nanchang, China, French Open finalist Eri Hozumi is partnering with Valeria Savinykh to top the draw, followed by Yingying Duan and Xinyun Han.

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