Alicia Molik and Mara Santangelo

More Than Just Beginner’s Luck

August 17, 2007 - It’s not every day that two singles players can come together and have instant success as a doubles team.  But Alicia Molik and Mara Santangelo have proven this year that sometimes you can catch lightning in a bottle and find that immediate spark.

The duo has exploded onto the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour doubles scene this season, reaching the quarter-finals of the first tournament they entered, the Tier I Family Circle Cup in Charleston, South Carolina.  The event got off to a fantastic start for them when they defeated the tournament’s No. 5 seeds and current third-ranked doubles team, Chia-Jung Chuang and Yung-Jan Chan of Taipei. 

After spending a couple of weeks playing in different events with other partners, the tandem came back together in time for the French Open.  In their first Grand Slam and only second tournament together, Molik and Santangelo came away from Roland Garros with the championship trophy.  Their victory was highlighted by a semifinal win over the top-ranked pairing of Cara Black (Zimbabwe) and Liezel Huber (United States).  Upsetting the seasoned veterans was no easy task as Black and Huber have shown this year that they are the team to beat in any event, winning two Grand Slams (the Australian Open and Wimbledon) and six titles overall in 2007.

The pair has proven this summer that their success on the clay courts in the spring was more than just beginner’s luck.  As the tallest team in the top 10 of the doubles rankings (both women stand just under six feet tall), they are an unconventional pairing, each known more for their hard hitting from the baseline than their abilities at the net. However, they have followed up their major victory with a semifinal showing at Wimbledon, a finals appearance last week in Los Angeles, and a current No. 5 ranking in the race to the Sony Ericsson Championships.

Both women are experiencing this tremendous success later in their careers.  While 26 years of age is far from being old, in women’s tennis years, they are certainly past the age when the majority experience their most success.  Particularly for Molik, it has been a long road to get to the point that she is at now.  A former top 10 player, Olympic bronze medallist, and Grand Slam doubles champion (she captured the 2005 Australian Open with Russia’s Svetlana Kuznetsova), the Adelaide, Australia native missed the end of 2005 and several months in 2006 with an inner ear infection.  However, Molik has fought hard to regain her form, and the success she is experiencing now is a testament to her immense talent and fighting spirit.

Santangelo has consistently improved her game since she turned pro in 1998, winning her first singles title last year at the Sony Ericsson International in Bangalore, India.  Since that time, however, she has really taken off in doubles, winning three other titles in 2007 with three different partners.  Hailing from Latina, Italy, she has also been critical to the success of the Italian team in Fed Cup by BNP Paribas play, helping her country reach their second straight final.  Despite her “veteran” status, Santangelo has emerged as a premier doubles player.

These two women, the No. 3 seeds in the doubles draw here at the Rogers Cup presented by American Express, will play their semifinal match on Saturday night against second-seeded Katarina Srebotnik (Slovenia) and Ai Sugiyama (Japan).  A win would mark their second straight finals appearance, and prove once again that they are one of the top doubles teams on the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour.

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