For some strange reason the ITF deleted the first Lopota tournament from their live scoring page, which not only meant that the scores were unavailable but that the live stream of the doubles final was as well. I was able to find the stream through another website, but it died just two points into the match. From there on all I could do was look at however much was shown of the far end of their court when looking at the stream for the singles final (which also had to be sourced elsewhere). It’s perhaps the most disappointing experience I’ve had with the ITF website since they changed data providers at the beginning of the year.
Shrivalli Bhamidipaty served first when she and Alexandra Shubladze played Paige Hourigan and Rutuja Bhosale, and had to save a break point before losing the deciding point. Bhosale held safely to consolidate the lead, with both Shubladze and Hourigan getting through their games for the loss of one point. Bhamidipaty couldn’t do that, losing her serve again after saving the only first break point, but Bhosale and Shubladze held to leave Hourigan serving for the set.
She won only the second point, which gave Bhamidipaty a chance to keep her team alive in the set, but I was able to see her pull a forehand wide to give away three set points. She saved the first two to get to deuce, but a repeat of how the first game ended saw her give away another break to lose the set after 37 minutes.
Bhosale then got broken in the first game of the second set, but Bhamidipaty followed suit after saving two break points to get to deuce. The deciding point had to be replayed after (I think) a ball had come across from the court on the far side, and the third seeds won that to get back on level terms.
Hourigan held serve comfortably before the next game started with a great 19 shot rally, but all I could see of the end of it was the ball going over the baseline. Shubladze only won one point, but Bhosale copied her compatriot’s previous game by saving two break points before losing the decider. That brought Bhamidipaty and Shubladze back on serve, but they got broken again when Bhamidipaty made a mistake with an overhead volley.
Hourigan held after a deciding point without, for once, any break points having come before the deuce, and that left Shubladze serving to stay in the match. A lost serve at 30-30 gave Hourigan and Bhosale two Championship points, but Shubladze got to deuce before the deciding point got lost for the fifth time out of six in the match. The final score was 6-3, 6-2, the match lasting an hour and 18 minutes. It’s the third title together for Hourigan and Bhosale, and the 16th ITF doubles crown altogether for Hourigan.