Beatriz Haddad Maia, from São Paulo, ranked 23rd in the world in doubles, fought alongside Laura Siegmund, from Germany, but ended up with the runner-up in Indian Wells after a game against the main favorites, the Czechs Barbaora Krejcikova and Katerina Siniakova.
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Krejcikova and Siniakova needed 1h59 to win by 2 sets to 1 (6/1, 6/7 (7-3) and 10/7). The Czech duo won 70% of the points played with their first service against 53% of the rival pair, who committed two double-faults against six of the Czechs, in a game without aces.
The match was marked by a very nervous first set by the Brazilian and German duo, who committed nine unforced errors and had great difficulty returning Siniakova’s centralized serves. Messed up and very well on the serve, the Czechs pressed on looking for the baseline game and work close to the net. So they opened 4/0, with breaks in the 1st and 3rd games. Managing, they closed the partial in a break of zero.
In the second stage, Bia and Siegmund remained under pressure, but managed to fit their service games better. The Brazilian and the German pressured Siniakova’s second serve and won the first break in the 7th game. The pairs continued to take advantage of individual casualties and exchanged breaks between the 7th and 10th game. The dispute was very evenly matched, and Siegmund had to serve to stay in the game. Thus, with Bia Maia firm by the net, the duo saved two match-points and took the dispute to the tiebreak.
In it, Bia and Siegmund relied on Siniakova’s backhand error to reach a mini-break, opening 3/1 and exchanging mini-breaks on the 7th and 8th points. The partial ended up defined in the 9th point, with Siegmund playing very well in the net, which gave the Brazilian the opportunity to serve for the game.
In the match-tiebreak, the pairs continued to press each other. Siniakova worked well on the return for a mini-takedown on the 6th point. The game continued evenly, with the pairs exchanging mini-breaks. Firm in return, the Czechs opened 8-5 and pressed, until they closed with another mini-break in a beautiful return by Kejcikova.
