Martina Calvo and Claudia Fernández are crowned champions of the London P1!

They’ve done it. There’s nothing more to say. In their second tournament together (in their first they came within a whisker), Martina Calvo and Claudia Fernández have become the youngest couple to win a professional title. Martina has also snatched the record for the youngest winner from Ustero at 18 years, one month and four days. This is how the feat unfolded in the final of the London P1.

A straight-sets victory over the world No. 1 couples

Last week, in Pretoria, they lost in a third-set tie-break to the world’s top-ranked couple. It felt as though they were just a hair’s breadth short of maturity – which is only to be expected given their age. This week, in the semi-finals, they faced Bea and Paula and won once again. The scenario was identical to that in Pretoria, and today, at last, it was different.

After that tournament in Pretoria, we analysed about these two very young players who had just made their debut as a couple. We warned of what might happen, and it has indeed come to pass. Winning a title in their second tournament together, and doing so at this age, will go down in the history books of this sport.

And they’ve achieved it whilst still being a couple with very little experience playing together, up against the most experienced couple on the entire circuit. Delfi Brea and Gemma Triay were unable to capitalise this time on the experience that had secured them victory last week. It’s true that in the second set, with Calvo and Fernández leading 5-1, Gemma and Delfi produced their best performance: they were the only ones you could hear on the court and even managed to break their opponents’ serve. But during that bench break, Calvo and Fernández were absolutely clear about what was happening. They analysed the situation, made adjustments, and closed out the match by turning around a 0-40 deficit in that very game. 7-6 and 6-3 – the title is theirs.

A tremendous feat that puts them right in the eye of the storm. What a second half of the season lies ahead for us in the women’s category.