Kiki Bertens and Johanna Larsson fought back from 4-1 down in the first set to beat Vitalia Diatchenko and defending champion Monica Niculescu to win the Hobart International doubles title.
Bertens, of the Netherlands, won her first WTA title while Sweden’s Larsson collected her third doubles crown with a 7-5 6-3 victory in one hour, 13 minutes.
“It’s really nice to have a good win here before Melbourne, it’s good preparation,” Bertens said. “It’s my first WTA title and also my first semi-final and final. For me it was exciting, especially playing with Jo.”
With swirling winds blowing from one baseline to the other, Diatchenko and Niculescu made a strong start as Bertens, serving into the wind, was broken in the second game.
But the Dutch-Swedish duo hit back in impressive fashion, turning their 4-1 deficit into a 5-4 lead before Bertens once again struggled with the wind while serving for the set. Niculescu fell victim to the same fate in the next game, however, and Larsson finished the job.
Niculescu and Diatchenko, driven to distraction as she was tagged time and again at the net by her opponents, moved 2-0 up in the second, but once again Bertens and Larsson came from behind to hit the front and this time never looked back, sealing victory in 73 minutes.
“Today and yesterday were really hard out there with the gusty wind,” said Larsson. “You don’t really get any rhythm, it’s just about trying to keep the ball in as much as possible.”