Liezel Huber and Lisa Raymond win the doubles championship title – Qatar Total Open 2012
Top seeded hot favourite duo of Liezel Huber and Lisa Raymond powered its way to glory by outsmarting the unseeded pair of Raquel Kops-Jones and Abigail Spears in the final of the Qatar Total Open on Sunday night. The all-American
affair took exactly an hour to settle, with Huber and Raymond coming out as the winner in straight sets, 6-3, 6-1, to lift the WTA (Women’s Tennis Association) Premier-level trophy in Doha, Qatar.
The combination of Huber and Raymond has been very successful last year and the two Americans keep their heroics in the 2012 season as well. It was their sixth doubles championship title playing together. The Qatar Total Open triumph
was more than just a championship victory for Huber, who clinched her 50th WTA doubles title to become the 15th women player in the history of the game to achieve this monumental milestone. Raymond also claimed her 76th doubles
title in the Open Era, levelling the numbers with the legendary Jana Novotna on the sixth place for the most titles victories among women.
"It feels great. It feels great," Raymond beamed afterwards. "Coming off a win last week in Paris and to be able to back it up, to come here to Doha and fight through some tough matches, especially at the beginning of the week,
it feels great. And to win a convincing final the way we did today, as well."
It was a comprehensively win for the two American veterans, who faced limited resistance from their fellow compatriots in the final showdown. Kops-Jones and Spears proved to be a total mismatch for the brilliance of Huber and Raymond,
falling behind the veterans in almost every segment of the game. The American underdogs have been absolutely belligerent throughout the tournament, beating two of the seeded teams en route to the final but couldn’t repeat the similar sort of performances in
the big match.
Huber and Raymond exhibited tremendous coordination among them and remained aggressive throughout the contest to force their way to victory. The top seeds registered four out of eight crushing break point conversions to root out
their bleak opponents with authority. Kops-Jones and Spears utterly failed to break their rivals in the entire matchup, frittering away four ital break chances to finish on the losing side in the end. Huber and Raymond nailed on breakthrough in the opener
and then three successive break point conversions in the second set finished off the proceedings for them with a breadstick in the second round.
Tags: