Top Seeds Fall to Black and Stubbs in Doubles Final

Virginia Ruano Pascual of Spain and Paola Suarez of Argentina, the number one doubles team in the world, fell to second-seeded Cara Black of Zimbabwe and Rennae Stubbs of Australia, 4-6, 6-1, 6-4, in the Acura Classic doubles final.

Following Lindsay Davenport’s singles victory on Stadium Court at the La Costa Resort and Spa, Black and Stubbs lost the opening set in 38 minutes, but rebounded to win the second set in 27 minutes.

In the third set, Suarez lost her serve midway through the set and the Argentine and Ruano Pascual could not recover as Stubbs served out the match.

On match point, the Australian hit a hard serve to Suarez’ backhand for a service winner to clinch the championship.

• Black won the Acura Classic doubles title here in 2001 with Elena Likhovtseva.
• Stubbs won the Acura Classic doubles title here in 2000 with Lisa Raymond.
• Black and Stubbs have now won four WTA Tour doubles titles together in 2004..
• Black and Stubbs are the 2004 Wimbledon champions. They defeated Ruano Pascual and Suarez in the semifinals.
• In their semifinal match, Black and Stubbs defeated Navratilova and Raymond, 7-5, 7-6 (4).
• Ruano-Pascual and Suarez defeated Likhovtseva and Zvonareva, 2-6, 6-4, 7-6 (6), in a semifinal match, which ended at 12:35 a.m. Sunday morning.
• Ruano-Pascual and Suarez won the 2004 Australian and Roland Garros doubles titles.
• This was the seventh doubles final of the year for Ruano Pascual and Suarez. They have won four of the seven finals.
• Suarez, who has won 34 career doubles titles, was a singles semifinalist at Roland Garros and singles quarterfinalist at Wimbledon this year.
• Suarez and Ruano-Pascual were named the 2002 WTA Tour Doubles Team of the Year and 2003 ITF Women’s Doubles World Champions.
  

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