Cincinnati (USA) July 21 : The excellent year, Lyudmyla Kichenok and Jelena Ostapenko won the title of the women’s doubles champion at the Western & Southern Open after beating Nicole Melichar-Martinez and Ellen Perez 7-6(5), 7-6(5), 6-3 in 1 hour 24 mins, here.It’s the second title for a team of this season for Kichenok and Ostapenko and Ostapenko, who also took the crown at WTA 250 Birmingham on grass.
“It’s my most prestigious title and I’m extremely happy.It’s difficult to describe the feeling, it’s incredible.I’m just unable to think of words.I’m still a little shaky after the match, but it’s thrilling,” Kichenok said after the match on Saturday night.
Kichenok and Ostapenko were ranked 5th in the Race to the Finals Leaderboard at the time of Cincinnati and are expected to climb further after a stunning 2022 performance.
In addition with the Birmingham victory, the pair made it to additional finals in Dubai as well as Eastbourne in the past.
The team also made semifinals at Roland Garros and Wimbledon this season, but fell to the eventual champions of both of these majors.
After finally making it onto the court following a number of rain interruptions, it was Melichar Martinez and Perez who had the advantage and broke Ostapenko in the first game of the match, and establishing an advantage of 4-2.Kichenok and Ostapenko however, were able to get back on the court at 4-4.
Melichar-Martinez and Perez were able to score two set points, 5-4 however, Kichenok and Ostapenko were able to hold off the challenge before a slam-dunk Ostapenko forehand earned another break at 5-5.
In the tiebreak a solid Ostapenko return earned her team two of set points and Kichenok and Ostapenko made the second of the two points to take out a one-set lead.There were no break points until the third set, which was 3-3 in the second set however, after the tiebreak, Kichenok and Ostapenko stormed to the victory, taking the last four games of the match.
“It isn’t important how the score was determined the most important thing was to play aggressively and press them.This was something they didn’t like, but it was a benefit to us in the crucial instances,” Ostapenko said.
Kichenok of Ukraine Kichenok of Ukraine is currently at seven WTA Tour doubles titles in her career.Latvia’s Ostapenko who is currently in the Top 20 in singles, has won six consecutive WTA doubles titles.
Despite losing, Melichar-Martinez of the United States and Australia’s Perez have both had a successful summer and have reached back-to-back WTA 1000 finals last week in Toronto and this week in Cincinnati.
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