Dabrowski, Olmos capture Madrid doubles title

No.2 seeds Gabriela Dabrowski and Giuliana Olmos won their first Hologic WTA Tour doubles title as a team at the Mutua Madrid Open on Saturday, outlasting No.3 seeds Desirae Krawczyk and Demi Schuurs 7-6(1), 5-7, [10-7] in the championship match.

Dabrowski of Canada and Olmos of Mexico needed 2 hours and 4 minutes to claim this season's first clay-court WTA 1000 doubles title, handing the American-Dutch pairing of Krawczyk and Schuurs their first loss in a month.

"I'm just really happy to win another title," Olmos said, after their victory. "We've both put in a lot of work and we've both come pretty far from the beginning of the season, so I think for us it's really motivating to continue in the direction that we're going, and to keep putting in the work."

Comeback thwarted: Dabrowski and Olmos led by a set and a break before Krawczyk and Schuurs rebounded to steal the second set. However, Dabrowski and Olmos gritted out the decisive match-tiebreak to hoist a champion's trophy in their ninth event as a duo.

"In those pressure moments, in the tiebreak in the first set, in the super-tiebreak at the end, I felt more comfortable because we knew that we weren’t having big highs and big lows," Dabrowski said afterward. "I felt like we were always bringing something good, and that would put a lot of pressure on our opponents to come up with something better and better. In the end, that worked in our favor."

The victory marks the 11th career doubles title for Dabrowski and the fourth career doubles title for Olmos, but their first together.

Dabrowski had been a Madrid runner-up twice previously, in 2019 (with Xu) and in 2021 (with her Saturday opponent Schuurs).

"I'm super happy that the third time's a charm for me here," Dabrowski said.

Krawczyk and Schuurs, a new pairing this season, were riding an eight-match winning streak coming into the final. They had won their first title as a team on the indoor clay of Stuttgart two weeks ago, but finally saw their run come to an end at the hands of Dabrowski and Olmos.

Match moments: Krawczyk and Schuurs were up a break on three separate occasions in the first set, but Dabrowski and Olmos broke back immediately at each of those instances. Dabrowski and Olmos then dominated the tiebreak to grab the one-set lead.

However, a break lead in the second set slipped out of the grasp of Dabrowski and Olmos, as a fiery Krawczyk return allowed her pairing to level that set at 4-4. Krawczyk and Schuurs completed the second-set turnaround when a sturdy Schuurs overhead helped them convert their third set point.

The match-tiebreak settled affairs, where an angled forehand return winner by Olmos gave her squad a critical mini-break for 7-6. A winning volley by Olmos gave her team triple championship point at 9-6, and they converted the second of those after an errant Krawczyk backhand.

Dabrowski and Olmos won 63 percent of points returning second serves in the match, while Krawczyk and Schuurs won just 47 percent of points on their second-service returns.