Doubles Take: Delray Beach, Dubai and more

History was made, dominance was re-established and much more, all in this week’s Doubles Take.

SIX APPEAL

Now, why exactly are Bob and Mike Bryan retiring again?

The brothers won the tournament in Delray Beach, Fla., defeating Luke Bambridge and Ben McLachlan in the final. It was their sixth time coming out on top at the event and the third time they’ve won in consecutive years. With the victory, their 119th together, they also clinched their 20th season in a row of clinching at least one title.

This is their last season on tour, but it doesn’t appear that they’ll be easing their way into retirement.

THE MIDAS TOUCH

Singles standout Christian Garin isn’t the only player that’s finding the “Golden Swing” to his liking. Right there with the Chilean are Marcel Granollers and Horacio Zeballos, who just won their second tournament in a row at the Rio Open in Brazil.

Facing the unseeded Italians Federico Gaio and Salvatore Caruso, the 2019 US Open finalists eked out the championship bout in a match tiebreak. Since they’re not playing this week, they’ll have ended their winter clay-court campaign with perfect marks.

REPEAT PERFORMERS

Down a set in the final of the WTA stop in Dubai, defending champions Barbora Strycova and Su-Wei Hsieh had to come up with the goods against Barbora Krejcikova and Zheng Saisa to level the match.

Strycova and Hsieh would go on to sweep through the match tiebreak 10-4 to clinch their second title together of the young season. It’s their sixth together since teaming up full time last year and seventh overall since 2018.

THE FRENCH-CANADIAN CONNECTION

Dating back to last fall, Vasek Pospisil has been on somewhat of a tear as he tries to reclaim his place among the game’s best after suffering through some fairly debilitating injuries. At the tournament in Marseille, France, the Canadian just completed one of his most impressive performances to date in his comeback, as he and Nicolas Mahut—fresh off the doubles title in Rotterdam—picked up the top prize.

In defeating Wesley Koolhof and Nikola Mektic in the final, Pospisil won his first title on the main tour in four years. His most recent one prior to this came in Rotterdam—with none other than Mahut.

THIS WEEK

Both tours reunite this week at the stop in Acapulco. On the men’s side, the top seeds are Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah, looking to play catch-up so far this season. “Colombian Power” has a difficult opener against Delray Beach finalists Luke Bambridge and Ben McLachlan. Georgina Garcia Perez and Sara Sorribes Tormo, the top seeds in the women’s draw, are out already, having dropped their first match to Sabrina Santamaria and Nina Stojanovic.

It’s also the men’s turn to play in Dubai this week. Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury are the top seeds and are contesting their first event since capturing the Australian Open a few weeks ago. The final event on the men’s calendar is the last stop on the Golden Swing, the Chile Open. Marcelo Demoliner and Matwe Middelkoop, who kicked off the clay-court stretch with the Cordoba Open title, are the top seeds.

The biggest event for the WTA this week is in Doha, Qatar, with the last four Grand Slam-winning teams in the mix, led by Barbora Strycova and Su-Wei Hsieh. Timea Babos and world No. 1 Kristina Mladenovic are the second seeds.