By Mark Winters
If was fitting that on the final Sunday of the tournament, a celebration was held to mark the 100th anniversary of the death of Roland Garros, the famed World War I French aviator for whom the facility and the tournament is named. He lost his life a day prior to turning 30, when his plane was shot down, near Ardennes, a month before the war ended in 1918.
Eugène Adrien Roland Georges Garros was a debonair record setter, flying to 18,410 feet in 1912 and a year later making the first non-stop flight across the Mediterranean leaving from the south of France (Fréjus) and landing in Bizerte (Tunisia).
Eri Hozumi and Makoto Ninomiya, who are both 24-years-old, were looking to accomplish similar feats in the Women’s Doubles final on Sunday, June 10th. They sought to become the first pair of Japanese performers to win a Grand Slam tournament title, and by doing so, win their first event while playing together. Up until today, they had reached three International Tennis Federation (ITF) semifinals between 2013 and 2018. Their best WTA Tour showing was a quarterfinal at Acapulco in 2015.
Unfortunately, Barbora Krejčíková and Kateřina Siniaková were not, in the least, accommodating. The Czech Republic, 22-year-old tandem, playing their fifth Grand Slam championship together, set a record of their own. In 2016, at Roland Garros they were semifinalists, but today they realized their best result at a major by downing Hozumi and Ninomiya, 6-3, 6-3 to claim the title.
In a word, the 2018 Roland Garros Women’s Doubles event was “astounding”. Hozumi and Ninomiya had the tournament of their lives. They scurried about the court, aggressively cutting off groundstrokes and turning them into decisive volley winners and hitting cleverly disguised lobs that were almost always irretrievable.
Unseeded and basically, unknown, they stunned the Hungarian/French combination and No. 1 seeds, Timea Babos and Kristina Mladenovic, in the quarterfinals, 7-6, 6-3 after shocking Gabriel Dabrowski of Canada and Yifana Xu of China, 6-1, 6-2, the No. 5 seeds, the round before. In the semifinals, they waylaid the No. 8 seeds Hao-ching Chan of Taiwan and Zhaoxuan Yang of China, 6-2, 6-2.
Krejčíková and Siniaková, the No. 6 seeds, were tested, but always found a way to survive. In the first three round, they played three, three set matches. The contest against Kiki Bertens of the Netherlands and Johanna Larsson of Sweden, in the Round of 16, was a 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (6) thriller. In the quarterfinals, they really found their form dispatching Andreja Klepač of Slovenia and María José Martínez Sánchez of Spain, the No. 3 seeds, 6-3, 6-3. In the semifinals, they were even better downing Czech countrywomen and No. 2 seeds, Andrea Sestini Hlaváčková and Barbora Strýcová, 6-3, 6-2.
In the final, the taller team, Krejčíková and Siniaková, who stand 5’10” and 5’9”, respectively, towered over Hozumi, who is 5’6” and the 5’2” Ninomiya collecting 60 points of the 100 points played in the one-hour, five-minute contest.
Japanese legend Ai Sugiyama earned three Grand Slam titles in her career. The first was at the 2000 US Open with Julie Halard-Decugis of France. The last two were Roland Garros and Wimbledon in 2003 with Kim Clijsters of Belgium. Following the match, Krejčíková and Siniaková praised Hozumi and Ninomiya for their outstanding play during the fortnight. They also took the time to remember their countrywoman Jana Novotna, who lost her battle with cancer in November 2017.
Roland Garros was justifiably saluted on the last day of the championships. Eri Hozumi and Makoto Ninomiya have been discovered while opening eyes with their wonderful personalities and competitiveness. A Grand Slam win could be within their reach, in their future. Barbora Krejčíková and Kateřina Siniaková were the 2018 Roland Garros Women’s Doubles story. They won the event and, along with it, earned the rarified status of being Grand Slam tournament champions and best of all, it was a great send off for Stade Roland Garros which will undergo a transformation for next year.
