WTA Finals 2019: Timea Babos, Kristina Mladenovic defend doubles title with straight sets win over Barbora Strycova, Hsieh Su-Wei

Shenzhen: Timea Babos and Kristina Mladenovic played a masterclass against Barbora Strycova and Hsieh Su-Wei to defend their WTA Finals doubles title on Sunday. In a lopsided final, the world number three completed an unbeaten campaign in Shenzhen with a 6-1, 6-3 rout in 64 minutes. The French Open champions were the first team since 2008 to defend their crown. It was a third straight triumph for Babos, who won in 2017 when paired with Andrea Sestini-Hlavackova.

“We really stood up and believed in our mental strength,” Mladenovic said after the match. The French-Hungarian pairing started red hot and captured two early breaks to run through a one-sided first set in just 24 minutes. They gained a decisive break in the sixth game of the second set before completing a convincing victory over the Wimbledon champions. Strycova had already secured the year-end number one doubles ranking for the first time in her career.