Cara, Huber lift fourth doubles title

By Collin Matiza

CARA Black and Liezel Huber reasserted their claim as the best women’s tennis doubles team in the world when they lifted their fourth title of the year at the AEGON Classic in Birmingham, England, on Sunday.

According to reports from Birmingham, Zimbabwe’s Black and her American partner Huber, co-ranked number one in the world and the top seeds at the AEGON Classic, clinched their fourth doubles title of the season by beating Americans Raquel Kops-Jones and Abigail Spears 6-1, 6-4 in the final.

Black and Huber were the defending champions in Birmingham and they successfully retained the doubles title adding it to the three they have already won in Paris (indoors), Dubai and Madrid this year.

After their early season success in Paris and Dubai, Black and Huber hit a rough patch by their standards, losing early in Indian Wells, Miami (both in the United States), Stuttgart, Germany, and Rome, Italy.

However, they righted the ship with their victory in Madrid, Spain, a semi-final showing at the French Open at Roland Garros a couple of weeks ago and the title in Birmingham on Sunday.

The duo has now won 26 Sony Ericsson WTA Tour titles together, including this year and last in Birmingham.

Black, who also won Birmingham in 2001 with Russian Elena Likhovtseva, now has 50 Tour doubles titles to her name, the 14th woman ever to hit the big 5-0; Huber has 38.

The only upset during the Birmingham tournament was number two seeds Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Lisa Raymond falling in the first round to Francesca Schiavone and Roberta Vinci, who were eventually knocked off by the fourth-seeded Kops-Jones and Spears in the semis.

The Americans were gunning for their second Tour title together, having won Estoril last month, but they came unstuck in Sunday’s final against Black and Huber.

Black and Huber were using the Birmingham tournament to fine-tune themselves for the third Grand Slam of the Year — Wimbledon — which starts in a fortnight in London.- TH