Madrid, Spain) – As expected, finding a place in the semi-finals will be a difficult task for Luísa Stefani and her Canadian partner Gabriela Dabrowski. Favorites in Madrid and second best duo in the season standings, as well as third and fourth in the traditional standings, the Americans Jessica Pegula and Coco Gauff beat this Sunday afternoon the Russian Alexandra Panova and the Mexican Giulia Olmos, by 7-6 (10 -8) and 6/3.

Stefani and Dabrowski are still looking for a strong result after the return of a strong partnership, which had great campaigns in 2021 but still haven’t fully blended in recent weeks. After the victory over the Russian sisters Mirra and Erika Andreeva, by 6/3 7/5, the native of São Paulo was satisfied with her performance.

“Great game today, it was a tough game,” he said. “The girls are young, but they have a lot of quality, they are very competitive. Mirra, in particular, is very confident,” he recalled, referring to Mirra’s three unexpected singles wins, including against Beatriz Haddad Maya. “I was happy with the way we handled the ups and downs and in the end we managed to play well to finish. We are delighted with how the week is going both in training and in both games.”

This is only the second time Stefani has competed in the WTA 1000 on the fast-paced clay of Caixa Mágica and in 2021 she hasn’t even made it past the first round. The 2020 edition was canceled due to the pandemic and last year the São Paulo native was still recovering from the operation.

With the campaign so far, Stefani temporarily recovers two positions in the standings and can reach 23rd place, but will have to make it to the semi-finals to have any chance of returning to the top 20.