There was double joy for the extrovert of the women's tour, Bethanie Mattek-Sands at the French Open last week. The 30-year-old 'Lady Gaga of the Tennis world' ensured that her tennis did the talking for once, as she bagged two doubles titles for herself. After partnering fellow American Mike Bryan to mixed doubles success, she returned on Sunday to ensure that Lucie Safarova left Roland Garros with a title after all, as the pairing took the women's doubles crown. Mattek-Sands matched the feat of Virginia Ruano Pascual in 2001 in taking those two titles in Paris.
Second chance for Safarova
Safarova was disappointed to lose out to number one seed, Serena Williams in the women's singles final, especially after being a break up in the decisive third set. At least she had the consolation of a second chance in the women's doubles final, even if she had less than a day's recovery before heading back on to the red clay in Paris.
Path to the doubles final
Along with her trusted partner, Mattek-Sands, the duo had been deadly at the Australian Open earlier in the year. They continued that form into the French Open, defeating the top seeds in the quarter-finals, as the evergreen Martina Hingis and India's Sania Mirza succumbed in straight sets. Their final's place was confirmed after a topsy-turvy last-four encounter, the pair finally taking the match 6-2 5-7 6-4 against the all-Czech partnership of Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka.
In the other half of the draw, Casey Dellacqua of Australia and Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan caused a surprise by comfortably overcoming the second seeds Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina in the semi-finals.
Final tussle goes to third set
The final itself proved just as difficult to call, as the first set went to the Australia-Kazakhstan pairing.
It was Mattek-Sands and Safarova who would not be denied though, as they fought back and took the title 3-6 6-4 6-2 after two hours of intense tennis action.
Double joy
Mattek-Sands only decided to match up with Bryan in the mixed doubles event at the last minute. It proved to be an inspired combination as they lost just one set on their run to the title.
In the final, the first set against Hradecka and Poland's Marcin Matkowski proved to be a tight battle. After it had been decided on the tie-break though, the American pair romped away with the second set to take a 7-6 6-1 victory and with it the Grand Slam.
After a career when she has been noticed as much for her fashion sense on court, Mattek-Sands is finally making the tour notice her for her tennis ability as well.