Stosur confirms her spot at the top

Australian Sam Stosur and her American doubles partner Lisa Raymond have confirmed their status as the world’s top women’s doubles pairing, coming from a set down to defeat No.3 seeds Cara Black and Rennae Stubbs 3-6 6-3 6-3 in the final of the WTA Championships in Madrid.

The match was a repeat of last year’s WTA Championships decider in Los Angeles, where Stosur and Raymond managed to turn a daunting 5-2 second set deficit into an impressive 6-7(5) 7-5 6-4 comeback victory.

The Australian-American co-world No.1s were forced to fight back from a set down again, but this time it was at the Madrid Arena where Raymond in particular was feeling right at home.

“The entire tournament, everything about it has been wonderful,” she said. “The city has embraced us and embraces the tennis. They’ve come out to support the tennis and everyone who was behind the tournament was so well organized from the beautiful hotel that we stayed in to this facility.

“I’ve played in New York, LA and in Munich,” Raymond added, “and they all had their positives, but this as a whole was just hands down the best.”

After beginning the year with a semi-final showing in Sydney and the disappointment of an Australian Open finals loss in Melbourne, the world’s top combination reeled off a dominant 18 match winning streak that included four Tour titles in Tokyo, Memphis, Indian Wells and Miami.

Their streak came to an end with a surprising opening match defeat in Amelia Island, but they responded by claiming another tournament win at Charleston the following week and the French Open soon after in June.

However, the duo followed their second Grand Slam title together with a rough patch, as they competed in seven different WTA events in the space of four months from June to October without adding to their trophy cabinet.

Coincidentally, it took a finals victory over the Zimbabwean-Australian team of Black and Stubbs at Stuttgart to end their winless run.

Since then, Stosur and Raymond claimed another two titles together at Linz and Hasselt and entered the WTA Championships with their confidence well and truly reinstated.

Winning in Madrid took the pair’s 2006 season tally of titles to 10 and an imposing 60-13 win-loss record for the year.

In the women’s singles final, Belgium’s Justine Henin-Hardenne reinforced her newly regained world No.1 status by out-hitting French world No.3 Amelie Mauresmo to win 6-4 6-3.

The gritty Henin-Hardenne clinched her return to the No.1 singles ranking with her semi-final victory over Russian star Maria Sharapova.

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