Russian duo Nadia Petrova and Maria Kirilenko defied their seeding at the year-end WTA Championships on Sunday after ousting two higher ranked doubles teams to seal the doubles title at the TEB BNP Paribas WTA Championships – Istanbul 2012.
Petrova and Kirilenko were the last teams to make it to the elite tournament after reaching the semifinals of the Kremlin cup a week ago. On Saturday, they eliminated top-seeded Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci of Italy 1-6, 6-3, 10-4 and in the Sunday’s final, the duo eliminated Czech pair Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka 6-1, 6-4. Both Hlavackova and Hradecka have enjoyed a successful 2012 season with four title wins and runner-up finishes at Wimbledon, London Olympics and US Open.
“I’m very proud – I think we played very solid tennis today,” Petrova said during the on-court interview.
“We were calm and in control of the game from the beginning, and we didn’t lose momentum in the second set. Also, Maria was very brave, holding serve in the last game from two break points down,” she added.
“We felt we could dominate the game today – it sounds simple, but really it’s quite difficult,” Kirilenko said.
“We’re happy to win another title together,” the Russian added.
Petrova and Kirilenko will be in Sofia, Bulgaria later this week to compete at the Qatar Airways Tournament of Champions Sofia.
