L-R: Vera Zvonareva of Russia and Laura Siegemund of Germany hold the championship trophy after their match against Yifan Xu of China and Nicole Melichar of the United States (both not pictured) in the women's doubles final on day eleven of the 2020 U.S. Open tennis tournament at USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.
Germany's Laura Siegemund and Russian Vera Zvonareva captured the US Open women's doubles crown with a 6-4, 6-4 win over third seeds Nicole Melichar of the United States and China's Yifan Xu on Friday.

The unseeded German-Russian duo, who had never competed together before the US Open, broke their opponents three times and won 79% of their first-serve points during the 80-minute clash on the Arthur Ashe Stadium court.

The victory secured a first Grand Slam women's doubles championship for Siegemund and a third for Zvonareva as the Russian won the 2006 New York title with Nathalie Dechy and 2012 Australian Open crown with Svetlana Kuznetsova.

After wrapping up the victory, the pair celebrated with a hug, but only after asking the chair umpire for permission, wary of breaking Covid-19 protocols.

"It's special to win a Grand Slam. I guess it was important to do that," the Russian said after the match.

Her German partner was also delighted to be able to embrace her doubles partner, having been overcome with emotion at winning her first women's doubles ttie.

"Yeah, I felt already the rounds before, I'm like very emotional usually at the end of a match. I'm, like, screaming and jumping. I want to hug my partner, I have this urge.

"That was always kind of awkward to stay away from each other, do that pretty cold racquet move.

"Today I was like, What the heck. But I asked permission at least!"