Sports
Hunter-Mertens won first doubles title at Italian Open
No. 4 seeds Storm Hunter and Elise Mertens beat top seeds Coco Gauff and Jessica Pegula 6-4, 6-4 in the final here to claim their maiden team title at the Italian Open.
No. 4 seeds Storm Hunter and Elise Mertens beat top seeds Coco Gauff and Jessica Pegula 6-4, 6-4 in the final here to claim their maiden team title at the Italian Open. The title was Mertens’ 17th career doubles title and Hunter’s sixth.
Hunter and Mertens’ straight-sets wins over Gauff and Pegula on Saturday capped off a dominant fortnight in Rome. The Australian-Belgian pair dropped just one set during the tournament with wins over Flipkens/Rossolska, Rosatello/Moratelli, Danilina/Babos, Buzkova/Mattek-Sands and the No. 1 Americans.
Due to the threat of persistent rain, the doubles final, originally scheduled after the singles final at Campo Centrale, was moved to Court Pietrangeli and played in front of an enthusiastic standing-room-only crowd.
The eventual champion struck first, leading 2–1 at the deciding point. The top seed got a break back to tie the set 4–4, but Gauff’s serve was broken in the next game. Mertens closed out the set by holding serve in a tense 30-all game, with Hunter closing out the set with an overhead winner.
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