Luisa Stefani celebrating with Demi Schuurs. Photo: Instagram/ @luisastefani
53 minutes. That was the time it took Luisa Stefani and Demi Schuurs to get through their WTA 1000 debut in Madrid. Thus, the Brazilian and Dutch pair, seeded number 3 in the tournament, beat the Polish pair Magda Linette and Chinese Shuai Zhang. The score was 2 sets to 0 (6/1 and 6/2) and they now face two other Chinese women, Wang/Zheng, for a place in the quarterfinals.
In the first half, Luisa and Demi broke their opponents on three occasions among six breakpoints that appeared throughout the set. Furthermore, they did not give up any chance to return any of these breaks. They didn’t serve as efficiently as the opposing pair, they hit 66.7% of their first serves, compared to 82.6% coming from the other side. On the other hand, they were very effective in returning, with high points conversion rates receiving both the first and second serves (52.2% against 20%).
In sequence, the Brazilian, number ten in the doubles ranking, and the Dutch, number 12, confirmed their favoritism. The opposing pair has the Chinese woman occupying 61st place and the Polish woman being 49th. In this way, Luisa and Demi broke their opponents’ service twice on four occasions in the second set. Once again, they didn’t give their opponents a chance to react. They won all the points they played with first serve and half the points they were returning.
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Interestingly, Luisa, alongside her former partner, Gabriela Dabrowski, debuted at last year’s WTA 1000 in Madrid against the same Polish Magda Linette, who played with the American Sofia Kenin. At the time, the Brazilian stopped in the quarterfinals and, therefore, has a few more points to defend.
Journalist graduated in 2013, but I have been working since 2008, when I joined P. Mackenzie University. I worked for six years at Diário Lance!. I passed by Punteiro Izquierdo, Surto Olímpico, Torcedores and Municipal Secretariat of Sports and Leisure of São Paulo. I joined OTD in April 2023.
