Defending champions Timea Babos and Kristina Mladenovic battled past 2018 Roland Garros winners Barbora Krejikova and Katerina Siniakova 6-2 4-6 7-5 in a thrilling semifinal match after 2 hours and 29 minutes in the doubles tournament of the French Open in a clash between two previous two winning teams.
Babos earned the first break in the fourth game of the opening set, as Siniakova made a double fault on the break point. Krejikova and Siniakova broke straight back after Babos made a series of groundstroke errors. Babos broke serve in the sixth game with a forehand return winner to open up a 4-2 lead. They saved a break point on Mladenovic’s serve to build up a 5-2 lead before breaking serve to close out the first set after a series of errors by Siniakova.
Mladenovic and Babos got an early break in the second game of the second set at love. Siniakova broke straight back in the third game with a volley winner. Siniakova and Krejikova broke serve in the seventh game to take a 4-3 lead after a series of netted shots from Mladenovic and Babos and held their next service games to close out the second set.
At the start of the third set Babos saved two break points in a five deuce first game. Mladenovic survived three deuces to hold serve in the third game. Krejikova got the break in the fifth game to take a 3-2 lead. Mladenovic broke straight back in the sixth game to draw level to 3-3, as Krejikova sent a lob long on the second break point. Krejikova faced a match point at 4-5. As Siniakova was serving to stay in the match in the 12th game, the Czech team earned two game points to draw level to 6-6. Krejikova and Siniakova saved four more match points, but Mladenovic hit a drop volley on the sixth match point to clinch a thrilling win.
Babos and Mladenovic scored their third win in as many matches against Krejkikova and Siniakova after beating the all-Czech team 7-5 7-6 (8-6) in the Birmingham semifinals and 6-4 7-5 in the WTA Finals.
Babaos and Mladenovic have reached their second Grand Slam final this year after winning the Australian Open last January. The Hungarian and French team are unbeaten at Grand Slam level and were beaten by Gabriela Dabrowski and Jelena Ostapenko in the semifinals in Doha.
