Sometimes there’s no substitute for experience.
At the BNP Paribas Open women’s doubles championship Saturday, the team of American Asia Muhammad and Demi Schuurs of The Netherlands worked their way past Tereza Mihalikova of Slovakia and Olivia Nicholls of Great Britain for a comfortable 6-2, 7-6 (4) win.
This was only their second tournament playing together, but Muhammad and Schuurs had a combined 30 doubles championships entering Saturday’s final. Mihalikova and Nicholls, both primarily singles players, just three. And none of those three were on a stage as big as the BNP Paribas Open final.
Despite all those wins, neither Muhammad (11 career wins) nor Schuurs (19 career wins) had won at Indian Wells before Saturday. That’s why their celebration was so exuberant. When Muhammad hit an ace on the final point of the match, she jumped for joy, raising her arms, while Schuurs just crumbled to the ground in joy at the net. They then together roared and hugged with glee.
“When we started this week, I told Asia that I never play well here and she told me that she always plays well here,” Demi Schuurs revealed to the crowd during the trophy ceremony. “So it was like, ‘OK which one are we going to choose?’ And we chose to play well and win the tournament.”
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With the win, Muhammad becomes the first American woman to earn a piece of the BNP Paribas Open doubles title since 2016 when Coco Vandeweghe and Bethanie-Mattek Sands won it together.
This is Schuurs’ sixth Masters 1000 title with five different partners. Muhammad now has two Masters 1000 titles.
Schuurs and Muhammad split the first-place prize of $457,150 while Mihalikova and Nicholls share $242,020.
This was the eighth Masters 1000 event together for Mihalikova and Nicholls. They had never advanced past the quarterfinals before. But they played well in this one, forcing a second-set tiebreaker.
But with Muhammad and Schurrs leading 5-4, Schurrs made a beautiful winner off a crossing motion and then Muhammad sealed it with the ace.
