Friday, June 8, 2012

Errani and Vinci win French Open

Vinci and Errani
Sometimes, even at the majors--even at the French Open--things turn out they way they "should." Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci have been the team to beat throughout this clay season, and--so far--no one has beaten them. They won Acapulco, Barcelona, Madrid, and Rome, and they have now won 27 straight matches on clay (that streak began in 2011).

Today, the Italian pair topped off their winning clay season by claiming the Simone Mathieu Cup, the prize for winning the doubles championship at Roland Garros. Errani and Vinci, seeded 4th, defeated 7th seeds Maria Kirilenko and Nadia Petrova 4-6, 6-4, 6-2.

Errani and Vinci were the runners-up at the Australian Open, where they lost the final to Svetlana Kuznetsova and Vera Zvonareva. Errani and Vinci have been a force in Fed Cup play for some time. The 2012 French Open is the first major they have ever won, though they have won ten other titles as a team, with five of those wins coming this season.

For Sara Errani, it's one down and one to go. The last woman to play in both finals at the French Open was Kim Clijsters, who did it in 2003. The last woman to win both finals was Mary Pierce, in 2000.

Esther Vergeer has done it again. Vergeer won the wheelchair singles championship today by defeating Aniek Van Koot 6-0, 6-0. Vergeer and partner Marjolein Buis won the doubles championship by defeating the top-seeded team of Sabine Ellerbrock and Yui Kamiji 6-0, 6-1.

On the junior side of things, Anna Schmiedlova and Annika Beck won their semifinal matches and will compete for the junior title. German player Beck is seeded 2nd; Schmiedlova, who is from the Slovak Republic, is unseeded.

In junior doubles, top seeds Eugenie Bouchard and Taylor Townsend were defeated today by Montserrat (I really like this name) Gonzalez and Beatriz Haddad Maia. The other team advancing to the final is the 2nd-seeded pair, Daria Gavrilova and Irina Khromacheva.

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