In team debut, Cirstea and Kalinskaya claim Madrid doubles title – WTA

Sorana Cirstea and Anna Kalinskaya teamed up for the very first time at the 2025 Mutua Madrid Open. And now, after a brilliant team-debut fortnight, they are WTA 1000 doubles champions. In Sunday’s all-unseeded final that went down to the last moment, Cirstea and Kalinskaya squeaked past Veronika Kudermetova and Elise Mertens 6-7(10), 6-2, [12-10], saving one championship point in the match-tiebreak. The pendulum swung back and forth throughout, and Cirstea and Kalinskaya found themselves down a set and a break at 7-6, 2-0. They came all the way back and closed out the victory after 2 hours and 14 minutes of unpredictable action.  Both Cirstea and Kalinskaya broke lengthy doubles title droughts with the win. This is Kalinskaya’s fourth WTA doubles title and her first since 2022. Cirstea had to wait even longer for her sixth WTA doubles title — her most recent one came in 2019. This is the first WTA 1000 title for both Cirstea and Kalinskaya in any discipline. Both of them were contesting their first WTA 1000 finals in doubles, although they have each been WTA 1000 runners-up in singles — Cirstea at 2013 Toronto and Kalinskaya at 2024 Dubai. This fortnight started perfectly for
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