Third seeds Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini captured the first WTA 1000 doubles title of the season at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open on Saturday with a 7-5, 7-6(10) win over Jiang Xinyu and Wu Fang-Hsien.

Doha: Draws | Scores | Order of Play

The Italians, the 2024 WTA Doubles Team of the Year, are now 3-0 in WTA 1000 finals as a pair in their careers, winning in Rome and Beijing last year. But to add a first Doha title together to their resumes, they needed to overcome a stern challenge from an in-form unseeded team already competing in their third final of 2025, and who had upset No. 2 seeds Hsieh Su-wei and Jelena Ostapenko earlier in the tournament. 

Errani and Paolini saved a pair of set points in the first set, and in the second, they came from 5-3 behind before a dramatic deciding tiebreak that pushed the total match time to nearly 2 hours. 

Errani and Paolini needed seven championship points to seal their triumph -- the first of which came in the 12th game of the set, before the 22-point deciding frame even began. Jiang and Wu later built a 5-3 lead in the tiebreak, but used bold, inspired play to turn aside three more championship points.

The third save knotted the tiebreak score at 8-8 -- and to add to the drama, the four players sat on court through a brief rain delay. Out of the break, Jiang and Wu had their only set point -- created when Paolini missed a second-serve return well long and wide -- but Errani wiped that chance away with a high forehand volley winner that just kissed the sideline.

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"It was a really tough match ... they are playing amazing," Paolini said post-match. "Doubles, it's a little bit tricky with the deciding point and the tiebreak. Yesterday [when they saved match points to beat Mirra Andreeva and Diana Shnaider] we were a little bit lucky, today maybe a little bit as well.

"It's been a special week here."

Errani first triumphed in Doha 12 years ago alongside former longtime partner Roberta Vinci -- "a long time ago!" she joked in the trophy presentation -- and the 37-year-old has now captured a total of eight WTA 1000 titles in doubles.