Huber and Raymond Capture US Open Doubles Crown

Written by: Global Chick on 11th September 2011

Huber and Raymond Capture US Open Doubles Crown

Lisa Raymond of the US (L) and Liezel Huber of the US (R) kiss the championship trophy after defeating Vania King of the US and Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan in the women's doubles final match on the fourteenth day of the 2011 US Open Tennis Championship at the USTA National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, New York, USA 11 September 2011. The US Open has been extended due to weather for the fourth year in a row and the men's final will now be played on 12 September 2011. EPA/MATT CAMPBELL |

The No. 4 seeds Liezel Huber and Lisa Raymond of America have won the US Open women’s doubles title today defeating last year’s Champions Vania King of United States and Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan 4-6 7-6 (5) 7-6 (3).

Today’s match lasted for two hours and 47 minutes. King and Shvedova were really close to winning the match and had several opportunities to take the lead. On three separate occasions they were three points away from claiming their second US Open title. But Raymond and Huber were too strong today even if King and Shvedova the No. 3 seeds took the first set.

The second set tiebreak started out with the American team taking a 3-0 lead. King and Shvedova made a short lived comeback and found themselves 2-4 down. They then levelled making it 5-5. Huber and Raymond then won the next point giving them a set point. They closed out the second set with a tiebreak win.

This match was decided by a third set tiebreak. Raymond and Huber took a 4-0 lead and then dominated the final tiebreak winning 7-3. Today’s title is Raymond’s third US Open crown. She won in 2001 with Rennae Stubbs of Australia and win 2005 with Sam Stosur both from Australia. It was Huber’s second US Open doubles win today. She won the title in 2008 with Cara Black of Zimbabwe.

“I think it’s nice for us to win today knowing that our game plan works. May time we get beat by girls that hit very big,” Huber said.

Huber and Raymond will be the World No 1 doubles team when the rankings come out on Monday. They will knock Kveta Pescke and Katarina Srebotnik off the top. “My goal ahs been to play with Lisa and reach success with Lisa. I think that goal is achieved to some extent, and we’re gonna keep working hard through the rest of the year. I think the ranking is sweet. It’s nice. But this US Open title is much bigger for me today than the ranking,” Huber said.