Porsche Tennis Grand Prix: Anna-Lena Grönefeld wins the double title in Stuttgart

Anna-Lena Grönefeld and her doubles partner Raquel Atawo won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix. The Fed Cup player from Nordhorn won 6:4, 6:7 (5:7), 10:5 against the seeded Nicole Melichar/Kveta Peschke (USA/Czech Republic) at the American’s side in 1:44 hours.

For the 32-year-old Grönefeld it was her 17th double title – but the first with her new partner Atawo, who had triumphed last year at the same venue as Jelena Ostapenko (Latvia).

The duo seeded in fourth place received a total of 35,368 euros in prize money. In the golden shower of confetti, Grönefeld and Atawo celebrated their premiere success on the Centre Court.

Grönefeld had already won the double competition in Stuttgart in 2008 – at that time at the side of the Swiss Patty Schnyder. Amusingly, this year’s final was against Peschke, who had actually been Grönefeld’s permanent partner in recent years. Both had even qualified for the 2017 World Cup in Singapore for the eight best double pairings of the season.

The last time a German pairing won in the Swabian metropolis was in 2013: Sabine Lisicki/Mona Barthel. Grönefeld and Atawo had defeated the top seeded Andreja Klepac/Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez (Slovenia/Spain) 7:5, 6:3 in the semi-finals on Saturday evening.