Doubles Take: Monte Carlo and Charleston

Doubles Take is here with a look at the latest action on the ATP and WTA tours.

ANOTHER TOURNAMENT, ANOTHER TITLE

Going into last week’s Monte Carlo Open, Nikola Mektic and Mate Pavic had most definitely proved that their decision to team up for 2021 was a good one, with four titles coming on hard courts to kick off their partnership. How would they fare on the clay together, though?

As it turns out, they wouldn’t miss a beat.

The Croatian duo captured their second Masters 1000 title of the year, topping Dan Evans and Neal Skupski, the team they beat in the Miami final, for the championship.

It’s been quite the run for the pair: Pavic has strengthened his hold on the top spot in the men’s rankings, already equaling his career-best in terms of titles won in a season. Mektic, who won Monte Carlo the last time the tournament was held in 2019 with Franko Skugor, another countryman, defended a title for the first time in his career.

YOUTH IS SERVED

Back in 2018 at the US Open, Coco Gauff and Caty McNally topped Hailey Baptiste and Dalayna Hewitt for the girls’ doubles title in an all-American matchup. It was a dream debut for Gauff and McNally, who would go on to win two titles on the senior circuit a year later.

Fast-forward to last week and the WTA Tour stop in Charleston, S.C., where McNally and Baptiste teamed up for the first time as pros. Through their first three matches, the 19-year-olds only dropped eight games to reach the final against top-70 doubles players Ellen Perez and Storm Sanders of Australia. The top seeds stopped Bailey and McNally’s sets-won streak by taking the first in a tiebreaker, but were unable to hold off the young duo in the end.

Playing with the poise of veterans, Baptiste and McNally kept Perez and Sanders from winning a first title together, while making their own mark.

Gauff and McNally have earned the rights to a nickname—“McCoco”—over the past couple of years with their results. Perhaps “McBaptiste” will become a thing down the road.

THIS WEEK

Two prestigious clay-court events return to the ATP and WTA calendars after last year’s cancellation due to the pandemic. For the men, it’s the 500-level tournament in Barcelona, where Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah, the top seeds, will attempt to defend their 2019 title. They could hardly face a tougher opener, though, as they’ll take on five-time Slam champs Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut first up. The second seeds are Horacio Zeballos and Marcel Granollers, who played exceptionally well on the dirt last year. It’s a Grand Slam-caliber draw—so much so that 18 players have won at least major in their careers.

On the WTA side, tennis returns to Stuttgart, Germany, for the Porsche Grand Prix. Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Desirae Krawczyk are the top seeds, followed by Yifan Xu and Shuai Zhang. That team could face Ashleigh Barty and Jennifer Brady, who won their opening-round match.

The other ATP event this week is the Serbia Open, which has really been off the calendar for a long time—nine years, to be exact. Nikola Mektic and Mate Pavic were the top seeds, but withdrew, opening up the top half of the draw. The tournament became a little more up for grabs, too, when Austin Krajicek and Oliver Marach, the second seeds, lost their opener. At the WTA’s Istanbul Cup, Elise Mertens and Veronika Kudermetova headline the field, with Nao Hibino and former French Open doubles finalist Makoto Ninomiya the second seeds.