Corleys win for the first time on the WTA

Ivana and Carmen Corley have achieved some notable milestones during their brief professional careers as tennis doubles partners.

The sisters hit a big landmark on Sunday in Rhode Island.

The former Eldorado High and University of Oklahoma standouts captured their first WTA doubles title, winning the Hall of Fame Open in Newport.

The Corleys, seeded fourth, defeated third-seeded Arianne Hartono of The Netherlands and Prarthana Thombare of India 7-6 (4), 6-3 for that maiden WTA championship.

“It really does mean so much,” Ivana Corley said in a telephone interview from Boston.

The Corleys won four matches during the tournament. Their time to celebrate was short — the Journal reached them Sunday at the Boston airport, where they were waiting to catch an overnight flight to Portugal for their next tournament.

The Hall of Fame Open was a WTA 125 event.

Sunday’s victory was among the most impressive yet for the duo. Coming into the week, Carmen was No. 97 on the WTA’s world doubles rankings list, while Ivana – who only recently returned to the court after wrist surgery for a ligament tear sidelined her for a few months – is No. 172.

They have had some successes. They reached the semifinals last summer of an event in Cleveland, which was a WTA 250-level tournament. That performance earned them a wild card invitation to last year’s U.S. Open in New York.

The Corleys won a first-round match at the U.S. Open.

Their triumph Sunday didn’t come easily. They were down 2-5 in the opening set before recovering to win five of the final six games, including the tiebreak.

“We did a good job of trusting our ability to adapt,” Carmen Corley said. “And problem solving on the run instead of freaking out in the moment.”

Their experience last summer, Carmen said, served her and her sister well on Sunday.

“I would say every match we play, we gain experience and knowledge from it,” she said. “Playing on some of the biggest stages definitely helps on a moment like today.”

The victory was perhaps somewhat unexpected, both of them said.

Their results over the last few weeks have been unsatisfactory, including a first-round exit the previous week at a tournament in North Carolina.

“We just trusted what we were doing, that we were getting better,” Carmen Corley said.

Sunday’s win did not qualify them for this year’s U.S. Open, which begins Aug. 24. The Rhode Island victory occurred on a grass court, and they now are transitioning to hard courts for the next few weeks, starting in Europe.

“Ideally,” Carmen said, “we’d like to get in (to the U.S. Open) on our own.”

The win was not technically their first as a professional doubles team. They did capture a pair of ITF World Tennis Tour 35K tournaments (the 35 refers to the overall tournament purse of $35,000) in the Dominican Republic last year. The ITF is basically the equivalent of a minor league for tennis. Carmen said she wasn’t yet sure how much money they earned on Sunday. But that was secondary to the achievement of hoisting a trophy together.

“It was great,” Ivana said. “Today was a really good day.”

The duo will return to the United States after this week’s tournament overseas.

“We still have better tennis in us, we feel,” Carmen Corley said.

But Sunday, they joined the list of women who are WTA champions.

“Thinking back, Carmen and I have dealt with a lot of adversity,” Ivana said. “The last few tournaments, we haven’t been doing well. After last week … it was pretty emotional, honestly.”