Sorana Cirstea and Anna Kalinskaya are the queens of the 2025 Mutua Madrid Open. The pair beat Elise Mertens and Veronika Kudermetova in an extremely tight final, 6-7, 6-2, 12-10. They needed three match points, but they eventually closed out the first WTA 1000 of their careers.
Their names now join the great champions of the Caja Magica in a winners’ circle packed with legends of the game, including the Williams sisters, Martina Hingis and Yung-Jan Chan, Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci, Cara Black and Liza Hueber, and last year’s winning team, Sara Sorribes and Cristina Bucsa, among others.
It was a dream debut. The duo were playing their first tournament together in Madrid, and it could not have been a better start. They were not among the favourites when the event began. It was their first time on the same side of the net and they managed to bring down title favourites Dabrowski-Routliffe, in a super tie-break. From that point on, they reached the final without dropping another set. At the trophy ceremony, Cristea explained: “I haven’t been playing doubles recently, a win like this wasn’t part of my plans. We said we’d play one or two matches and look, Anna, the title is ours and today we won thanks to you. You played a great game”.
Kalinskaya was also visibly emotional after claiming her first title in Madrid: “This is very special. The fans were immense. It was so close, we won on the small details, that’s tennis”. She was also incredibly grateful to her new teammate: “Sorana, it’s incredible, I honestly wasn’t expecting this either. Thank you for becoming my friend. I enjoyed every minute of the tournament”.
One tournament, one victory. We will surely be witnessing their on-court chemistry more often. For Cristea, the victory is perhaps even more special. The Romanian claimed her first doubles title as long as 17 years ago in Fes alongside Pavlyuchenkova. Since then she has never stopped winning. Kalinskaya is no slouch either, this is her fourth doubles title.
Their opponents also put in a stunning performance. On 8 November 2022, Kudermetova and Mertens parted ways, which came as a surprise to everyone that day in Mexico because they had just been crowned doubles Masters champions. They ended their partnership at the top of their game and had not played on the same side of the net since. When the entry list for the Mutua Madrid Open was published, the news came through that they were back together after over 30 months apart. “It’s our first tournament back together, we didn’t do too bad”, the Belgian said with a smile on her face despite the defeat. If they carry on performing the way they did this week, they will surely win again soon. Who knows, maybe they will get their revenge in the Caja Magica in twelve months’ time.
