Kleybanova-Voskoboeva Win Doubles Title

© JLSAlisa Kleybanova and Galina Voskoboeva won the doubles title.

Russian Alisa Kleybanova and Galina Voskoboeva of Kazakhstan captured the Estoril Open doubles title by beating Eleni Daniilidou and Michaella Krajicek 6-4, 6-2 in Saturday's final.

Kleybanova has now won five WTA doubles titles, including her second this year. In January she won the Brisbane trophy with Anastasia Pavlyuchenova.

"I’m really happy because I didn’t do so well in the singles, so it was important for me to play some more matches and to have some good wins in doubles as well," said Kleybanova. "It instills confidence and you’ve won more matches, so another title can never be bad, always good!

"Galina and I have fun all the time. We’re good friends and we’ve played together before and we always enjoy it. So whenever we get the chance to play together I’m happy because we feel good on the court together."

For Voskoboeva, it was her second crown. Last year she partnered Dinara Safina to Kuala Lumpur silverware. "It’s the second title for me this year, and the second of my career too, so of course I’m very happy, particularly to win these after coming back from my injury," said Voskoboeva. "Frankly speaking, I didn’t expect that after coming back from the injury that I would be able to win two titles almost in a row."

The match was suspended due to rain after 14 minutes of the first set. The finalists returned 50 minutes later. Kleybanova and Voskoboeva saved four of five break points to take the 41-minute set.

Daniilidou and Krajicek won just nine points on serve in the second set, as Kleybanova and Voskoboeva converted all four break point opportunities to seal victory in 73 minutes.

"Michaella and Eleni are both players with a lot of experience and have played for a long time on the tour," said Voskoboeva. "We had to be ready for the match. Unfortunately we saw that Eleni had some injury problems coming into the match, but actually that didn’t help us! All four of us were so nervous on the court, but Alisa and I struggled a bit with our concentration knowing that Eleni was injured, and we needed to focus more on our game."

Krajicek also finished as the Estoril Open runner-up with Henrieta Nagyova in the 2005 title match.

Voskoboeva said, "I’ve had a very good week here in Estoril. I’ve never been here before and I would say it’s a nice tournament. If I remember correctly, it used to be the same week as Rome and I used to always play there. I had heard it was windy here, but I didn’t really feel that during the week. This year we were pretty lucky with the weather, although it rained a bit over the last couple of days…obviously it didn’t want the players to leave!"

Kleybanova said, "It’s been a good week here in Estoril. At times it rained, but we managed to have a really good tournament. I’ve played almost every day. I was of course expecting to do a bit better in singles but I’m happy with what I’ve done. To win another title in doubles is a great thing."