TOP Zimbabwean female tennis player, Cara Black and her partner Marina Erakovic of New  Zealand found the going tough  when they lost 2-6, 4-6 to the pair of Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Lucie Safarova in the final of the WTA Mutua Madrid Open in the Spanish capital yesterday.

Pavlyuchenkova of Russia and Safarova of Czech Republic had defeated the duo of Kristina Mladenovic and Galina Voskoboeva 6-7, 6-0, 10-7 in the semi-finals while unseeded Black and Erakovic beat local favourites Silvia Soler-Espinosa and Carla Suarez Navarro in straight set 6-1, 6-3.

Cara a former world number one returned to the circuit last year after giving birth to her first child in April of the same year.

In January she claimed the ASB Classic doubles title with her Australian partner, Anastasia Rodionova in Auckland, New Zealand. They went on to play in the Australian Open in Melbourne in the same month and only managed to reach the third round.

According to reports from Madrid, Pavlyuchenkova, who has also won 2 singles titles this year, commented: “We’re so happy — I’m already dancing and singing! It’s amazing. It’s really important for us because we were working so hard together and playing well, and finally we’ve won such a big tournament.

We were extremely focused today because the last few matches we were really close to finishing it easier as well, but then losing some concentration and making some unforced errors. It happened a little bit today but we learned from our mistakes and managed to close it out.”

Safarova, also a top 20 player in singles like Pavlyuchenkova said, “It’s our second season playing together and I’ve always enjoyed playing with Anastasia. We’re also great friends, so it’s always a pleasure to play doubles with each other.”

This was the duo’s second doubles title as a team but it is Pavlyuchenkova’s fourth career doubles title and Safarova’s third doubles title.