Monique Barry served first when she and fellow left-hander Natsumi Kawaguchi took on Tenika McGiffin and Naho Sato in the women’s doubles final under the roof of the Pat Rafter Arena at the ITF tournament in Brisbane. It wasn’t a good start for the top seeds, who lost the game when Barry hit a forehand into the net, but their opponents didn’t fare any better. A beautiful forehand return down the tramlines from Barry took McGiffin to deuce, and the Australian powered a forehand over the baseline to lose the deciding point.
Kawaguchi held serve when she finished her game with a beautiful forehand winner down the tramlines, and she started and finished Sato’s first game with two beautiful returns of serve to get another break. Sato hit the first real standout shot when she won a good short rally in the next game with a fabulous forehand lob into the left tramline, and Barry lost her serve again when she followed a double fault by being forced to hit a forehand into the end of the net.
McGiffin finished a great rally on her final point with a beautiful inside-out backhand winner into the tramlines to level the scores, but Kawaguchi held comfortably again to put her team back in front. She added a lovely cross-court overhead volley in Sato’s game, with Barry then hitting a beautiful backhand return through the left side of the court to give her team break points. McGiffin saved the first with a lovely soft reflex forehand volley at the net before Barry’s next return went long to give away a deuce. Kawaguchi safely returned the deciding point, but hit a cross-court backhand wide to let her countrywoman hold serve.
By now rain could clearly be heard drumming on the roof, and it very quickly got so heavy that it was impossible to hear anything on the court. Barry was then facing a break point after hitting a backhand over the baseline, but Sato did the same, and Barry ended the good rally on the deciding point with a beautiful cross-court forehand winner. The roof on the Pat Rafter Arena isn’t a solid part of the building – it’s supported by struts attached to the top of the stadium so, although it provides plenty of protection from the weather, it’s not waterproof if there’s a strong wind blowing the rain in sideways underneath the canopy.
Some of the water managed to make its way onto the court, and they took a break while the lines were towelled dry and the officials made sure that water wasn’t continuing to drip onto the surface. It was quite surreal to see that rain was actually falling in front of the camera, which was perched high in the stand and obviously situated on the outside of the overhang in the roof.
It was eight minutes before they resumed play, and McGiffin finished what would remain the only hold to love in the match with a fabulous backhand winner down the tramlines. Although the players might have glimpsed the light, what they couldn’t have seen from ground level was the huge flash of sheet lightning which lit up the sky thirty seconds into the game.
Kawaguchi lost a fabulous rally in her own game when she hit a forehand volley into the net, and she lost the next point when McGiffin’s cross-court forehand return clipped the net cord and landed safely in the court. An overhit forehand from Kawaguchi cost her two break points, but Barry saved the first with a cross-court forehand volley before a poor inside-out forehand return from Sato went wide. Sato got the deciding point back in play, but a beautiful inside-out forehand winner from Kawaguchi completed the hold of serve.
That left Sato needing to do the same to keep her team in the set, but an overhead volley from Kawaguchi took the score to deuce. There was a fantastic rally on the deciding point, and it ended with the shot of the match when Kawaguchi hit a wonderful angled backhand drop volley to complete the break and end the set in favour of the top seeds. Actual playing time in the set was 56 minutes.
Kawaguchi aced McGiffin out wide to end the first game in the second set, with the latter then having to get through a deciding point to hold her own serve as the rain finally faded out to nothing that could be heard. Barry as forced into a forehand error to end a great rally when she served, taking her to deuce as well, but she overhit a backhand to lose the deciding point. They got the break straight back when Sato and McGiffin finished the next game with poor forehand volleys.
Barry lost the longest rally in the match when her attempted cross-court smash flew over the baseline, but she won the final point of her partner’s game with a beautiful soft backhand volley into the tramlines. She added a fabulous inside-out backhand return off McGiffin before winning the next point with a nice forehand volley, and another beautiful return of serve from her, this one a forehand down the tramlines, completed the break.
Barry served next, and every single point went into the highlights package, starting with a beautiful backhand return down the tramlines from McGiffin. Kawaguchi followed that with a lovely forehand volley before they played the best rally of the match, Barry ending that with a gorgeous cross-court backhand winner on the eleventh shot. Next came a beautiful forehand return down the tramlines from Sato, and they finished with two more terrific rallies. McGiffin ended the first after 16 shots with a forehand volley down the tramlines before Barry lost the game when she finished the second with a forehand over the baseline on the 15th shot.
Another great 15 shot rally on Sato’s first point was completed by a lovely forehand volley down the tramlines from McGiffin, but an overhit cross-court backhand from Sato dropped her back to deuce. Barry won the deciding point when she steered a backhand volley into the right-hand side of the court, and the break meant that Kawaguchi would be serving for the title.
Kawaguchi hit a fabulous cross-court forehand winner into the tramlines to end the short rally on the third point, and Sato pulled a forehand wide next up to hand the top seeds three Championship points. Kawaguchi aced McGiffin out wide to complete the victory after an hour and 41 minutes of actual playing time, although the official record has it a few minutes longer. The final score was 7-5, 6-3.
This was Barry’s fifth ITF doubles title this year, following victories in Burnie, Launceston, Tweed Heads and Darwin, and the victory will lift her to a new career-high ranking of somewhere between 230 and 240 when the points are updated on Monday week. She now has a week off before returning to Brisbane for a W50 tournament, with a step up to W75 in Sydney the week after.