Ukrainian Lyudmila Kichenok became the winner of the WTA 500 doubles tournament in the British Eastbourne.
In a duet with the Latvian Elena Ostapenko they beat the Canadian-Australian tandem Gabriela Dabrowski and Erin Routliffe in three sets — 5:7, 7:6 (7:2), 10:8.
Kichenok and Ostapenko — champions of Eastbourne
In the first game there was an equal fight on the court, but the 11th draw was decisive, which Kichenok and Ostapenko lost. But the opponents did not return their next serve and closed the set.
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The second game unfolded according to a similar scenario, and in the 11th draw Elena and Lyudmila gave their serve to their opponents, but scored a break in the next game.
The outcome of the second half was decided in a tiebreaker, in which the Ukrainian and Latvian took two of their opponents’ serves and never made a mistake on theirs.
The third set was a tiebreaker and lasted 16 minutes. The opponents' 17th serve was decisive, on which Lyudmila and Elena managed to make a break. In the next one, the girls served for the match and closed the set.
The next tournament where Kichenok and Ostapenko will perform in a duet will be Wimbledon. The girls will begin performing on August 3, and their rivals will be the Australian-Chinese tandem Daria Saville and Yue Yuan.
