Power and reflexes will rule tonight’s final. Seventh seeds Lyudmyla Kichenok and Jelena Ostapenko won two matches yesterday and have proved to be a formidable team this year. They won the title in Birmingham, reached two other finals and were semifinalists at the French Open and Wimbledon. Along the way they defeated today’s opponents Nicole Melichar-Martinez and Ellen Perez in Madrid. But the latter team is on a roll – this is their second straight week in the final of a WTA 1000 event. Melichar-Martinez was a Western & Southern Open doubles finalist two years ago so she will be hoping to go one better today with Perez, who is a former Georgia Bulldog.
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