Jelena Ostapenko and Lyudmyla Kichenok won the US Open women's doubles championship Friday for their first major title as a team, beating Kristina Mladenovic and Zhang Shuai 6-4, 6-3.
The No. 7 seeds began the season with a loss in the Australian Open final but were too good in Flushing Meadows, where they didn't drop a set.
It was the fifth title together overall for Ostapenko, a Latvian who won the 2017 French Open in singles, and Kichenok, who dedicated the victory to her home country of Ukraine.
Mladenovic has won six Grand Slam doubles titles but fell to 0-3 in the US Open final. Zhang was looking for her second trophy in New York, having teamed with Sam Stosur for the 2021 title.
Ostapenko and Kichenok broke in the second game for an early advantage and, after Mladenovic and Zhang got the set back on serve, had a massive hold in an eight-deuce game during which they fought off five break points for a 5-4 lead. Zhang ultimately gifted the next game with a double fault on the second set point.
In the second set, Zhang and Mladenovic broke early for a 2-0 lead, but Ostapenko and Kichenok broke Zhang to reach 3-3 and broke Mladenovic at love to reach 5-3 before Ostapenko closed out the match on her serve.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
