Tournament history. Sara Sorribes and Cristina Bucsa claimed the title to become the first Spanish women’s duo to win the Mutua Madrid Open. It has been fifteen years in the making, but Spain’s day to celebrate its home champions has finally arrived.
In the end, it was third time lucky. In 2014 and 2015, Carla Suarez and Garbiñe Muguruza reached the event’s title bout, but they fell at the final hurdle on both occasions. Sara and Cristina, though, did not make the same mistake.
The Spanish pair took to the court intent on springing a surprise, but it would not be easy. On the other side of the net in their battle for the trophy was Barbora Krejcikova, a six-time Grand Slam champion in the discipline, and Laura Siegemund, the player of the season last year. In the end, though, the two doubles experts were taught a lesson by the home favourites.
Sorribes and Bucsa’s intensity was high from the moment the first ball was struck in anger, and their level was not far behind. The Spanish ‘hurricane’ took the first set with a resounding 6-0, although it was perhaps not as one-sided as the scoreline would suggest. The players faced four deciding points (40-40) and all four fell to the same side. Bucsa was solid from the baseline and Sorribes proved once again that she has a knack for knowing when to pounce. There was no stopping them in the first set.
As the players walked to their benches, the heavens opened above the Caja Magica and the roof was closed on the Manolo Santana Stadium. The Czech and German twosome set about planning their comeback, while the Spaniards kept warm and tried not to lose their focus. After the restart, it was a much closer affair and the Central-European team broke the Spaniards’ serve to lead a set for the first time in the match (2-1). The blow fired up Sara and Cristina, who rediscovered their form from set one and went on to chain together five games that allowed them to lift the title in Madrid. A dream come true.
At the beginning of the week, when Sorribes revealed that they had signed up together at the last minute because of the withdrawal of her normal partner Maria Bouzkova, who would have guessed they could go all the way? “I was signed up with Mery (Bouzkova)”, said Sara, “But I was aware she wasn’t well, and suddenly she phoned me and said she couldn’t play. I’d spoken with Cristina’s father the day before and he said that they didn’t have anyone, they were waiting to see if they could get in. Then I went to the gym and was lucky enough to bump into him. I said ‘Ivan, have you found anyone yet? Do you want to play? He said yes. We went to the office, Mery came and withdrew, which really helped us. She did it really quickly. They said we had 15 minutes, so we had to call Mery and Cristina so we could sign up. Then Mery withdrew and Cristina joined”.
It was a simple twist of fate. An unfortunate withdrawal and a chance meeting created a last-minute pairing that went on to lift the title. As a result of their week in the Spanish capital, the duo would surely make great candidates to team up at the Olympic Games.
As the tournament drew to a close, both players were emotional. “There are no words to describe this feeling of having made history playing at home and having won this great tournament”, said Cristina, before Sara added “it’s wonderful to have won this trophy. The fans gave us so much support and we’re very happy”.
This is the fifth career doubles title for the player from Castellon and the Moldovan-born Spaniard’s third. It is the first WTA 1000 trophy for both of them. Have we just witnessed the birth of a great team of the future?
