Even though they weren’t seeded, it wasn’t any sort of surprise that Elyse Tse and Andre Lukosiute were the hot favourites to win the doubles final in Corroios-Seixal against the much lower-ranked Portuguese pair of Maria Garcia and Milana Ivantsiv. It was Garcia who got them underway on a very pleasant morning, the temperature hovering around 20 degrees instead of the 40+ being suffered at other venues in the past couple of weeks.
She dropped herself to deuce after hitting a backhand wide, but Lukosiute’s cross-court backhand return of the deciding point landed in the net. Lukosiute served next in a game that saw both the first standout shot ad the first really good rally. The first-named was a beautiful backhand volley through the middle of the court from Ivantsiv, but she lost the great rally on the last point by hitting a forehand into the net.
Lukosiute got herself into the highlights package with a lovely cross-court backhand return off Ivantsiv, who then double faulted before hitting a backhand over the baseline to lose the game. The other three players all held safely, Garcia hitting the best shot so far when she started her own game with a fabulous cross-court forehand winner into the tramlines to end a great short rally.
The only point Lukosiute lost was to a gorgeous smash from Ivantsiv, but the latter got broken again when she finished her second game by hitting a cross-court forehand over the baseline. That left Tse serving for the set, but she was left facing a break point when Garcia pulled off a beautiful intercept at the net to send a forehand volley through the right-hand side of the court. Lukosiute smashed away a volley to get them to deuce, and Tse hit a beautiful forehand winner down the right-hand tramline to end the set after 26 minutes.
The serving order remained the same in the second set, and this time Garcia didn’t need to get through a deuce before winning the first game. She seemed to me to be a bit lucky, because what I thought was a fabulous lob from Tse was called long by the line judge at the end nearest the camera. I replayed it several times, and it definitely seemed to have landed no further along the ground than on the baseline itself.
An overhit forehand volley from Tse to end a good rally dropped Lukosiute back to deuce, and the Lithuanian hit a cross-court backhand into the net to lose the deciding point. The longest rally in the match came in the next game, lasting 19 shots before Ivantsiv was forced to hit a forehand into the net. That gave away a break point, but Tse overhit her forehand volley before ending a good rally with Ivantsiv on the deciding point by hitting a cross-court backhand into the net.
Tse held to love next up before Lukosiute lost the fantastic rally of the match by hitting an inside-out backhand volley into the net on the 16th shot. Garcia ended another good rally by hitting a cross-court backhand lob over the baseline, dropping them back to deuce, and she lost the good rally on the deciding point as well when she hit a backhand wide. Lukosiute didn’t lose a point after double faulting to start her second game, and the hold levelled the scores.
Ivantsiv again had to save a break point after her own error, and did so with an unreturnable serve to Lukosiute. Tse got the deciding point safely back in play, but her partner was forced into a forehand error to let the Portuguese pair regain the lead. Tse started her game with the shot of the match, the left-hander giving herself room to hit a fabulous forehand winner down the right-hand singles sideline and onto the baseline, and she went on to again hold to love.
Garcia didn’t lose a point either, starting the next game with a beautiful angled forehand winner before Ivantsiv won the third point with a lovely soft forehand volley at the net. Lukosiute hit a gorgeous backhand winner down the tramlines on the way to holding again, but an overhit backhand volley from Garcia dropped Ivantsiv back to deuce. A great return of the deciding point from Lukosiute rocketed into Garcia’s racquet, and the ball rebounded back over the baseline to leave Tse serving for the title.
She held to love for the third time in a row, winning the second point with the only ace of the match before Ivantsiv’s forehand return went long and Garcia’s forehand groundstroke landed in the net. Tse had a marvellous serving game, with the sort of stats we expect from James Watt on a good day, and she lost just one of her 18 first serves that landed in play. The final score was 6-2, 7-5, and the match had lasted for an hour and 17 minutes.
It was Tse’s fifth doubles title, all of which have come this year, and was the first above W15 level. Not surprisingly, seeing that she won a title last week as well, she has rocketed up the rankings to a new career-high inside the world’s top 350. That makes her the third-best New Zealand doubles player, behind only Erin Routliffe and Monique Barry.