No. 1 for a reason: Barbora Krejcikova and Katerina Siniakova roll on with BNP Paribas Open doubles title

Sometimes in the sports world, most of the time, in fact, Goliath beats David.

That was the case in the women's doubles final on Saturday at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells. The unstoppable force that is the top-seeded Czech duo of Barbora Krejickova and Katerina Siniakova defeated Beatriz Haddad Maia of Brazil and Laura Siegemund of Germany, playing together for the first time, 6-1, 6-7 (3), 10-7.

How good have Krejcikova and Siniakova been? They are now 11-0 in 2023 and they've won the last four Grand Slams they've played in — the Australian Open in 2022 and 2023, Wimbledon 2022 and U.S. Open 2022. They were not able to compete in the 2022 French Open because Krejcikova came down with COVID or we may be talking about five straight Grand Slam wins.

Despite all their success — 14 titles and seven Grand Slams in the 69 tournaments they've played together — this is the first time they have won at Indian Wells. They lost together in the 2019 final and Siniakova lost in the 2017 final with partner Lucie Hradecka.

"Well, I think it's a great feeling. It's definitely a huge tournament. I mean, it's called a fifth slam, so it's definitely one of the tournaments that you want to win," Krejcikova said. "I'm really happy that we were able to do it, because a couple years ago we were in a finals, and it didn't work out back then. But now it did. It feels great. Definitely this, for us, this tournament is ending right now, but I'm definitely looking forward to coming back here next year and try to get the title again (smiling)."

Both players receive the $436,730 winner's prize.

Saturday's match looked like it would fit the heavy-favorite storyline as Krejcikova and Siniakova broke Haddad Maia and Siegemund the first two times they served to open a 4-0 lead and cruise to a 6-1 first-set win.

But in the second set, the underdog pair was able to frustrate the Czech duo and it was clear by the body language that the momentum had changed. With the score tied 3-3, an unusual four consecutive breaks of serve happened to make it 5-5. Krejcikova and Siniakova had two match points up 6-5, but Haddad Maia and Siegemund fought off both of them, sent it to a tiebreaker, and then went on to win the tiebreaker 7-3.

It was a surprising turn of events that the match went to a super-tiebreaker after how easily Krejcikova and Siniakova won the first set.

But like champions do, they were able to shake off that frustration, reset themselves, and take control of the tiebreaker. Krejcikova and Siniakova won three straight points thanks to Siniakova at the net to turn a 4-4 score into a 7-4 advantage. She hit poach winners on points 5 and 7 and kept the 6th point alive with a great stab volley before Siegemund hit one into the net.

"You're used to it in tennis, so there is a lot of up-and-downs. So super-tiebreak, it's really quick, so you kind of need to be ready from the beginning. You just try to keep fighting. Doesn't matter what. I mean, I am frustrated when it's not going well, but I never stop fighting," Siniakova said. "There is a lot of emotions and a lot of thoughts, but, you know, you just need to pick every ball and you just keep fighting. I think that's what's helping us."

Krejcikova had a beautiful backhand return winner to close out the match at 10-7. The winning duo raised their arms in relieved victory, hugged and waved to the crowd.

The last time the No. 1 seed in the women's doubles field won this event was 2015 when the top-seeded duo of Martina Hingis and Sania Mirza took home the trophy.

Krejcikova and Siniakova are the seventh doubles team in the Open Era to complete the career Grand Slam (winning at least once in the four Grand Slam events) — Australian Open (2022, 2023), French Open (2018, 2021), Wimbledon Championships (2018, 2022) and U.S. Open (2022) — and one of only two teams (the Williams sisters) to accomplish the career "Golden Slam" which is all four Slams plus Olympic gold.

This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: BNP Paribas Open doubles champs: Barbora Krejcikova and Katerina Siniakova just keep winning