Unseeded pair Chia-Jung Chuang and Darija Jurak said they have no plans to continue their partnership after combining to win the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships women's doubles title.
Playing for the first time together this week, Chuang and Jurak defeated No 2 seeds Caroline Garcia and Kristina Mladenovic 6-4, 6-4 in the final Saturday evening.
Jurak was without a partner at the start of the week and said she was “lucky” Chuang chose her for the tournament. Lucky, indeed, as the pair looked like they had been playing together for years.
Having faced five match points in their semi-final victory over Sara Errani and Carla Suarez Navarro, Chuang and Jurak faced no such adversity in the final.
See more: The National's Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships landing page
Both sides failed to hold serve in the opening four games, but Chuang and Jurak refused to surrender the advantage after breaking for a 3-2 lead before closing out the set.
Chuang and Jurak then broke early in the second set only for Garcia and Mladenovic to level at 4-4. The unseeded pair then broke straight back to give themselves the chance to serve for the championship, which they duly did.
Asked why they she formed such a good partnership so quickly with Chuang, Jurak said: “It is chemistry. She is such a calm person, and that’s what I like. When things are not going well, she keeps it casual.”
Despite their triumph in Dubai, Jurak said she would return to playing with her regular doubles partner, American Nicole Melichar.
“We are sticking to the plan and hope for the best,” Jurak, 31, said. “This week we used our opportunities, but next week in Doha we have our regular partners. We are not going to change because we have a commitment to our partners.”
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