Photo: Mutua Madrid Open
In the doubles final of the Mutua Madrid Open, Canadian Gabriela Dabrowski and her Dutch partner Demi Schuurs lost 6-4, 6-3 to No.7 Barbora Krejcikova and No.8 Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic.
The Ottawa native (No.12) was out to claim the tenth doubles title of her career and her first since 2019 in Nuremberg. Schuurs (No.11) was looking to add a 15th doubles championship trophy to her collection and third title in 2021.
The clash between the No.2 (Krejcikova/Siniakova) and No.3 (Dabrowski/Schuurs) seeds promised to be a merciless one. Dabrowski and Schuurs took control early and broke their opponents twice to go up 3-1, but the Czech pair found their momentum and won four straight games to take the lead 5-3 and win the set.
The second set was just as tight. Dabrowski and Schuurs were broken in the third but got back on track in the next game. In the seventh, their opponents secured the break for the title.
Dabrowski—the most accomplished doubles players in the history of Canadian tennis—will have to wait a little longer for her tenth title. Besides her doubles wins, she also holds two Grand Slam mixed doubles crowns (Australian Open 2019 and Roland-Garros 2017) and two additional WTA finals.