US Open Women's Doubles Players
The one dominant pairing of the US Open, Virginia Ruano Pascual and Paola Suarez has finally broken up, and
this effectively means that the US Open women's doubles title is up for grabs.
Pascual and Suarez single-handedly controlled the doubles event for three years
when they were back-to-back champions from 2002 to 2004.
Their victims included Svetlana Kuznetsova and partners Martina Navratilova and Elena Likhovtseva, and Elena Dementieva and Janette Husarova.
Ruano Pascual has since formed a new partnership with fellow Spaniard, Anabel Medina Garriques, but they still have a lot of work to do before they reach the lofty heights of Grand Slam title holders.
There are several other doubles teams who have the finesse and fitness levels to claim the US Open doubles crown.
The current defending champions and world number one team of Cara Black and Liezel Huber have to be in contention. They finished off the 2008 season with an unprecedented four titles since they've been playing as a team and have won the 2007 Australian Open, Wimbledon and the Tour Championships.
The remarkable thing is that they have only been playing together since mid-2006 and they have not finished racking up the points, dollars and victories.
Ai Sugiyama of Japan and Katarina Srebotnik are another duo which seems to have the potential to lift the women's doubles at Flushing Meadows in 2009. They too are a newly formed partnership and have already impressed by reaching the finals at both Roland Garros and Wimbledon, and the quarterfinals at the 2007 US Open.
Rennae Stubbs and Kvete Peschke have only joined forces in the past six months, and they are looking extremely effective. These US Open women's doubles players have already won titles at Los Angeles, Stuttgart and Zurich, and reached the semi finals at both the US Open and Tour Championships and the quarterfinals at the All England Club.
2008 US Open women's doubles runners up, Lisa Raymond and Samantha Stosur will certainly give all-comers a run for the title. They have had notable successes in their short two-year tenure together, including the 2006 French Open women's doubles crown.
To date they have clinched 20 titles and in 2006 they were presented with the ITF (International Tennis Federation) Women's Doubles Champions Award.
In 2007 they won titles at Tokyo, Indian Wells, Miami, Berlin and Eastbourne and they made it to the semi finals of both the Australian and French Open.
Although the Black/Huber partnership has not had too much success at the US Open, they have proved their mettle as Grand Slam title holders, and it will probably only be a matter of time before they add a second US Open title at Flushing Meadows to their resume.
