Dulko and Pennetta win Rogers Cup Title
Dulko and Pennetta win Rogers Cup Title
Gisela Dulko and Flavia Pennetta claimed their Sony Ericsson WTA Tour-leading fifth title of the year on Sunday evening, saving a match point to beat Kveta Peschke and Katarina Srebotnik in the Rogers Cup final.
Due to persistent rain on Saturday and Sunday, the semis and final of doubles were moved indoors, and No.2 seeds Dulko and Pennetta beat Monica Niculescu and Shahar Peer, 62 36 104, while No.3 seeds Peschke and Srebotnik beat Anabel Medina Garrigues and Yan Zi, 75 16 106.
“There were between 50 and 100 people watching,” Dulko said of the semifinals. “It was weird, but we prefer that to sitting around, waiting and not playing for the second day in a row. We were just happy to play our matches.”
Later, the winning teams took the court again and it was another match tie-break finish. Dulko and Pennetta rallied from 1-5 to take the first set (saving three set points along the way) then, after losing the second set, saved match point down 10-9 in the breaker to edge Peschke and Srebotnik, 75 36 1210
“I’m very happy we won this match. It was a tough match,” Dulko said. “As you can see from the score, it was really tight. I’m so happy to win another tournament with Flavia. It’s unbelievable. We surprise ourselves every week.”
Montréal is the fifth title in Dulko and Pennetta’s title haul this year, adding to previous triumphs at Miami, Stuttgart, Rome and Bastad. Dulko actually has the most doubles titles on the Tour this year, also Bogotá (with Edina Gallovits).
Dulko and Pennetta are No.1 in the Race to Doha this year. The Williams sisters are No.2 and Peschke and Srebotnik are No.3. Peschke and Srebotnik were also finalists at the French Open this year and have established themselves as one of the teams to beat in any tournament they enter.
The Czech-Slovenian combination commented on the rain.
“We’ve been drinking the nice espresso in the player lounge,” Peschke said.
“The tournament here has a great players area,” Srebotnik said. “We have a lot of games – table tennis, billiards… there are a lot of things to keep us occupied.
“It’s not too bad to wait.”
“We were joking we should move the matches there,” Peschke added.
