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Romanian-German pair made up of Monica Niculescu/Anna-Lena Friedsam won the doubles title of the tennis tournament in the capital of Kazakhstan, Nur-Sultan (WTA 250), featuring total prizes worth 235,238 US dollars, on Saturday, after defeating in the final the Russian couple Angelina Gabueva/Anastasia Zakharova, 6-2, 4-6, 10-5.
The third seed pair prevailed in an hour and 31 minutes.
In the first set, Niculescu and Friedsam won five consecutive games after being led 2-1, and in the second act they had 4-2, but lost four games in a row. In the super tiebreak, the Romanian-German pair dominated the match, leading all the time, clearly winning, 10-5.
Monica Niculescu played 19 more WTA doubles finals, one this year, alongside Latvian Jelena Ostapenko, in Doha, Agerpres.ro informs.
Until the final of the Astana Open tournament, Niculescu and Friedsam defeated in the first round Kazakhs Chursina Sofiya/Dmitrichenko Yekaterina, 6-2, 7-5, in the quarterfinals they defeated Valeriya Strakhova (Ukraine)/Ekaterina Iakina (Russia), 6-1, 6-1, and in the semifinals they won, 6-4, 3-6, 10-8 against Russians Vitalia Diatchenko/Yana Sizikova.
For the Nur-Sultan title, Niculescu and Friedsam were rewarded with a check of 10,300 US dollars and 280 WTA points in doubles.
