Friday, January 27, 2012

Kuznetsova and Zvonareva win Australian Open doubles title

Svetlana Kuznetsova and Vera Zvonareva became the first all-Russian team to win a major doubles title yesterday when they defeated Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci in the Australian Open final. The Russian team beat the Italian team 5-7, 6-4, 6-3. Errani and Vincie are, of course, known for their exciting Fed Cup victories.

Kuznetsova won the Australian title in 2005 with Alicia Molik. This is Zvonareva's first Australian Open title; she won the U.S. Open doubles title in 2006 with Nathalie Dechy.

In the third round, Kuznetsova and Zvonareva took out top seeds Gisela Dulko and Flavia Pennetta in a thrilling, well-played match.

Meanwhile, Esther Vergeer and Sharon Walraven defended their 2011 women's wheelchair doubles title by defeating Aniek Van Koot and Marjolein Buis 4-6, 6-2, 6-4. Vergeer and Van Koot will face each other again in the singles championship match.

Elena Vesnina will not have to play her doubles partner, Sania Mirza, in the mixed doubles final. Mirza and partner Mahesh Bhupati lost their semifinal match to Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Horia Tecau. Vesnina and partner Leander Paes defeated Roberta Vinci and Daniele Braccieli in the semifinals.

In juniors, an all-USA semifinal was won by Taylor Townsend. Townsend defeated Krista Hardebeck 7-6, 6-4. In the other match, 4th seed Yulia Putintseva defeated 2nd seed Eugenie Bouchard 7-5, 6-1.

Townsend and partner Gabrielle Andrews won the junior doubles title. They defeated top seeds Irina Khromacheva and Danka Kovinic 5-7, 7-5, 10-6. Andrews and Townsend, who were unseeded in Australia, were the runners-up at the 2011 U.S. Open. Townsend, playing with Jessica Pegula, also made it to the third round of the main draw at the U.S. Open.

7 comments:

Sunny nine said...

After Zvonareva's heartbreaking loss in both singles final and doubles final(after beating the Williams sisters earlier in doubles) at 2010 Wimbledon, this was great!

Anonymous said...

Loved watching Svetlana take over at the end. :)

Diane said...

I was so tired last night--I just couldn't stay up and watch. But Kuznetsova has been a stand-out in doubles throughout this tournament.

Anonymous said...

Hi Diane,

Maybe ESPN3 will work for you. They have replays online. I say "maybe" because it depends on who your internet provider is.

http://espn.go.com/watchespn/index/_/channel/espn3#type/replay/sport/tennis/

Anonymous said...

I think the link got severed(?)
I broke it into 2 parts.


http://espn.go.com/watchespn/index/_/

channel/espn3#type/replay/sport/tennis/

Diane said...

Thanks, Anon. I hope there's one up long enough for me to watch. Tennis Channel will probably show it, too, since they show quite a bit of doubles.

Anonymous said...

Lol, Kuznetsova won this match by herself, Zvonareva was just holding a racquet, anyway congrats to them