ABU DHABI, UAE – The seeds of No. 5 Shuko Aoyama and Ena Shibahara finished their fourth team title at the 2021 Abu Dhabi WTA Women’s Tennis Open, beating No.8 seed Hayley Carter and Luisa Stefani 7-6 (5) 6-4.
The Japanese duo, who first paid at Toray Pan Pacific 2019, ended a successful week that started by saving four game points to beat Andrea Klepac and Marta Kostyuk in the first round, getting a hand in hand. surfaced 4-6, 7-5, 12 -10, and included a major win over key seed Hsieh Su-Wei and Barbora Krejcikova in the quarterfinals.
Aoyama / Shibahara started in a strong final on Wednesday, breaking immediately to win a 2-0 lead in the opening set thanks to an elegant net poach from Shibahara on a decision point. But the American / Brazilian pair responded with a run of four consecutive games, which began with a service break to get on the board. Down 0-30 on her service, Aoyama hit two faults to allow Carter / Stefani to break, which they made two points later.
Aoyama / Shibahara went down with the move back from Carter / Stefani behind Shibahara’s strong play at the net. At 3-4 down, the Japanese team broke with another smart poach from Shibahara to set the set at 4-4. The teams would exchange services to force a breach.
The teams remained flat to 5-5. The two Japanese scored a set point with some stellar work at the net from Shibahara, who were waiting for a pair of drives from Carter / Stefani before they sent off a tough smash over them.
With Aoyama serving a set point, Shibahara put a cross-court backhand volley redirect into the open court to seal the opening set.
In the second set Carter / Stefani immediately jumped to a 2-0 lead, responding well to the disappointing end to the first set. But Carter / Stefani could not respond to Shibahara’s play on Wednesday. As Aoyama held its ground in the baseline exchanges, the 22-year-old took control of the net. Aoyama / Shibahara immediately bounced back to get back into service at 1-2 and then broke again to move on to 4-3, before quietly closing out the game three games later.
The win led Aoyama and Shibahara to four titles, having previously won at 2019 Tianjin, 2019 Moscow, and 2020 St. Louis. Petersburg.
More to follow …