On home soil, Bucsa and Sorribes Tormo storm to Madrid doubles title

Spanish hopes Cristina Bucsa and Sara Sorribes Tormo excited the crowds at the Caja Magica on Sunday by capturing the Mutua Madrid Open doubles title on home soil.

No.8 seeds Bucsa and Sorribes Tormo rolled past No.6 seeds Barbora Krejcikova and Laura Siegemund 6-0, 6-2 in the final to triumph at the year’s first clay-court WTA 1000 event.

It was a perfect team debut for Bucsa and Sorribes Tormo, who were playing their first tournament together as a doubles partnership. In fact, they entered the event only 15 minutes before the doubles deadline closed, since their regular partners were unavailable.

Bucsa and Sorribes Tormo also made national history by becoming the first Spanish women to take home the Madrid women’s doubles title. Garbiñe Muguruza and Carla Suárez Navarro had finished runners-up in both 2014 and 2015.

“Wow, that’s amazing,” Bucsa said, after their win. “I didn’t expect that. I didn’t know that we can make history, but finally, the wish came true.”

“That’s something incredible,” Sorribes Tormo added. “Winning at home, winning in Madrid, which I really like. I think the history that we have behind [us]with [teaming up] 15 minutes before, it’s pretty good.”

On Sunday, Bucsa and Sorribes Tormo were dominant over two Grand Slam doubles champions in the 73-minute championship match. Buoyed by home support, the Spaniards converted half of their 12 break points while only dropping serve once.

Additionally, the Spanish pair won 68 percent of points returning their opponents’ second serves on the day. Krejcikova and Siegemund were also undone by 25 unforced errors, while Bucsa and Sorribes Tormo only had six unforced errors in the final.

Bucsa and Sorribes Tormo raced through the opening frame, where they faced only one break point — a deciding point on Bucsa’s serve at 4-0. As light rain started to fall in Madrid, the roof on Manolo Santana Stadium was closed between sets.

Krejcikova and Siegemund made a bit of a move after the roof closed, with a Siegemund volley winner giving the pair their first break of the day to lead 2-1 in the second set. However, Siegemund lost serve in the very next game, and Bucsa and Sorribes Tormo reeled off the last five games in a row to prevail.

“I think every match was very, very difficult,” Sorribes Tormo said. “I think we what we did well is that we went match by match, playing every point. Even today, I think we played perfect, but it could change.”

This is Bucsa’s third career WTA doubles title, her second of the year (after 2024 Bogota with Kamilla Rakhimova) and her first at WTA 1000-level. Bucsa reached her career-high doubles ranking of No.38 last week and is projected to climb even higher on Monday.

Sorribes Tormo won her fifth career WTA doubles title, and her first this year. She also set a career-high doubles ranking this month, at No.26, and projected rankings could see her make her Top 20 doubles debut on Monday.

This is Sorribes Tormo’s second doubles title at WTA 1000-level. She previously won WTA 1000 Beijing last autumn alongside Marie Bouzkova.