Monique Barry and Hikaru Sato took out the first seeds in the semi-final in Wuning, but they still had to get past the second seeds if they wanted to take their first title together. Again there was a left-hander on each side of the net, with the Chinese one, Wang Mei-ling, standing out with her dyed red ponytail. Her partner, Ye Qiu-yu, was dressed in fluorescent green, so she certainly wasn’t going to get lost in the background.
Wang held comfortably to start before Sato had a dreadful game, hitting forehand and backhand unforced errors to get broken to love and set her team on the back foot. Ye had a routine hold to consolidate the Chinese pair’s advantage, and it wasn’t until Barry served the fourth game that there was really anything to cheer about.
She hit the only ace in the match, thumping one down the middle past Wang, before being forced into a forehand error to lose the afternoon’s first great rally. An unreturnable serve to Wang brought up game points, and Barry finished the game with a fabulous cross-court backhand lob. Wang and Sato held safely before it was Ye’s turn to get broken to love, the only point not being lost through an unforced error being the one where Barry hit a beautiful backhand volley at the net to end a rally between Ye and Sato.
Barry then held comfortably to level the scores before taking Wang to deuce when she finished a great rally with a cross-court forehand volley. She got the deciding point back in play, and Ye lost the short rally which ensued by hitting a backhand volley into the net. That left Sato serving for the set, but she did no better.
Wang hit a beautiful forehand winner through the right-hand side of the court to end a good rally before Barry gave away a break point by mistiming a forehand volley and having to catch the ball. Wang should have got the break back on the next point, but lost the good rally there when she hit a forehand into the net. That turned out not to matter, as Sato lost the deciding point when she netted a forehand volley.
Another netted volley, this time an overhead forehand from Ye, cost break points in the next game, but Sato lost the longest rally in the match after 18 shots when she hit a forehand wide. She wasn’t under any pressure, as she and Ye were simply hitting the ball down the tramlines to each other, and nor was Barry when she lost the next point by hitting an inside-out backhand return into the net. There was another good rally on the deciding point, and this time Wang took the honours with a beautiful cross-court forehand winner.
Barry now had to hold to force a tie-break, and did so after a couple of tense moments when she lost the first two game points from 40-0. The rally on the first point was the longest in the match, but again it was nothing special as Wang and Sato just went back and forth until Ye tried to intercept, but her attempted overhead backhand volley was from an awkward angle and the ball landed in the net on the 21st shot.
Sato gave the mini-break straight back by double faulting, but Wang lost her partner’s first point when she hit a backhand into the net. The next four points went with serve before Ye again tried an overhead volley, this time a forehand, but it was as successful as her first attempt. That gave Barry and Sato three set points, and they converted the first when Ye was forced to jam a backhand volley into the ground. The set had taken 55 minutes.
Barry served first in the second set, and gave away a deuce when she sent a forehand lob over the baseline. Her serve on the deciding point looked to me as though it had landed past the line, because it was at the camera end, but the chair umpire only had help from side and centre line judges. Sato won the short rally on that point with a simple backhand volley, but her beautiful forehand winner through the middle of the court in the next game didn’t stop Wang holding serve as well.
The highlight in Sato’s first game of the set was a lovely overhead backhand volley from Ye, who then held in turn after she started with a lovely backhand winner into the right-hand tramline. Wang hit a fabulous forehand return down the tramlines off Barry before her partner created break points with another gorgeous overhead backhand volley.
Her next forehand return went wide, though, and Wang gave away the deuce when she sent a cross-court forehand over the baseline to end a great rally. Sato took the deciding point with a beautiful backhand stop volley that most certainly was supposed to be another shot entirely, and Wang held to level the scores again after Ye had hit another great overhead volley, this one being an inside-out forehand.
Wang added a lovely cross-court forehand winner into the tramlines when Sato served next, and Barry’s backhand volley into the net to lose the next point gave the Chinese pair a couple of chances to break. An unreturnable serve to Ye saved the first, but Barry found the net with a cross-court backhand to concede the break. This one was cancelled out straight away as well, Wang hitting forehands into the net to lose Ye’s last two points.
Barry held comfortably again, which meant that Wang had to hold as well if they were to have any chance of taking the title. She started well enough, with Sato missing a backhand return before Barry was forced to hit a forehand into the net at the end of the last good rally. Wang was forced to do the same with a backhand, and Barry took them to 30-30 with the shot of the match, a fabulous inside-out backhand return that must have landed right on the sideline.
She added a beautiful cross-court forehand volley to give her team two Championship points, and hit a great return of the next serve, forcing Wang to hit an inside-out backhand into the net. The final score was 7-6 (3), 6-4, and the match had lasted for an hour and 43 minutes. It was Barry’s twelfth ITF doubles title, and her sixth at W35 level.