Jessica Pegula and Cori Gauff were thrilled about their back-to-back Doha doubles titles. Last year, Pegula and Gauff won their first title as a pair in Doha. This year, Pegula and Gauff returned to Doha and made it all the way in back-to-back years.
On Friday, top-seeded Pegula and Gauff defeated second-seeded Lyudmyla Kichenok and Jelena Ostapenko 6-4 2-6 10-7. “Back2back,” Gauff wrote on Twitter.
Back2backð https://t.co/DC5nExh2Yt — Coco Gauff (@CocoGauff) February 17, 2023
Meanwhile, Pegula tweeted: “Running it back from last year!
2x (trophy emoji),”
Pegula wrote on Twitter.
running it back from last year! 2xð https://t.co/fzR495CF6S — Jessie Pegula (@JLPegula) February 17, 2023
Pegula, Gauff on defending their Doha title
After the Doha doubles final, Gauff expressed her gratitude to Pegula and also congratulated Kichenok and Ostapenko on their deep run.
“I’m just happy to be here. Firstly, thanks Jess [Pegula] for playing with me in a stressful tournament. And also, congratulations to you girls for an amazing week and hopefully we can both make the final in Dubai next week,” Gauff said, as quoted on Sportskeeda.
Before Pegula and Gauff took on the court for the Doha doubles final, Pegula defeated Maria Sakkari in three sets in the Doha singles semifinal. Pegula was just happy that she was able to get back on the court and end on the winning side with Gauff.
“Yeah, it’s been an amazing week for me. I had a really tough hard-fought win earlier but honestly, kind of forgot about it. It seems like so long ago. I’m just really happy we were able to win the match today,” Pegula said. Meanwhile, Gauff and Pegula now have four titles as a duo.
After winning Doha in early 2022, Gauff and Pegula captured their second title last August in Toronto. Then, Gauff and Pegula won their third and final title of 2022 in San Diego. At the start of the 2023 season, Gauff and Pegula played their first tournament of the year at the Australian Open.
At Melbourne Park, Gauff and Pegula made the semifinal. Now, they won their first doubles title of the year in Doha.
