Doubles Take: A look at the last winners before Paris

The French Open is here and you can check out the preview of the doubles side of things over at TENNIS.com. Doubles Take looks back at the players who won the last warm-ups before the main event.

AN ENCORE PERFORMANCE

During the first half of 2018, it seemed that Oliver Marach and Mate Pavic were going to put up a season for the ages in men’s doubles. The Austrian-Croatian duo reached its second consecutive major final in Paris, having won their first at the Australian Open. Their clay-court run actually started the week before in Geneva when they captured the title there.

Will history repeat itself this year? It looks like the quest is off to a good start.

Marach and Pavic defended their title with a straight-sets win over Robert Lindstedt and Matthew Ebden in the final. For the winners, it’s their first tournament triumph in a year, with their last victory coming in the Swiss capital.

A FRENCH (OPEN) CONNECTION

Ivan Dodig and Edouard Roger-Vasselin are both former doubles champions at the French Open, with different partners, and undoubtedly know how to play on the clay.

The pair proved their experience makes them a tough out last week in Lyon as they beat the brothers from Britain, Neal and Ken Skupski, in the championship match.

For Dodig and Vasselin, it’s their second title of the year together, following up on their other triumph on French soil in Montpellier.

THE QUEENS OF CLAY?

Gabriela Dabrowski and Yifan Xu made their first big breakthrough on hard courts, when they won the Miami Open in 2017.

Over the past few weeks, they’ve shown that they’re no slouches on the clay, either. The duo, who just reached the final in Madrid, captured their first title together on the slow surface, winning the Nuremberg Cup over Sharon Fichman and Nicole Melichar.

This win marked the first clay-court title for both Dabrowski and Xu.

AUSTRALIANS RULE

At the WTA stop in Strasbourg, France, the championship match looked it was built for Fed Cup as Australians Daria Gavrilova and Ellen Perez faced China’s Yingying Duan and Xinyun Han.

In the end, Gavrilova and Perez proved to be too much as they claimed the title. For Gavrilova, it’s her second career doubles title, while Perez captured her first.

THIS WEEK

In what’s become a Doubles Take Slam tradition, more doubles coverage will be coming your way by way of Baseline. Stay tuned for matches to watch, recaps and more during the French Open.

The biggest news from Paris thus far is Jamie Murray announcing his split from Bruno Soares after 10 titles together, including two Grand Slams. They lost to Lorenzo Sonego and Matteo Berrettini, 4-6, 7-5, 7-6 (4) on Tuesday.

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