By Benjamin Bowser / Staff writer, with AFP, RIYADH
Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Belgian partner Elise Mertens on Monday notched up their first win in the doubles group stage of the WTA Finals in Riyadh to keep their semi-final hopes alive, while Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russian partner Veronika Kudermetova were aiming to record their first victory after press time last night.
Third seeds Hsieh and Mertens came back from a disheartening opening-day loss to Australia’s Ellen Perez and Nicole Melichar-Martinez to defeat top seeds Ukraine’s Lyudmyla Kichenok and Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko, the women’s doubles world No. 3 and 4 respectively.
The 6-1, 6-3 victory at King Saud University Indoor Arena kept Hsieh and Mertens’ hopes of making the semi-finals alive, but to advance as Green Group winners, they today have to beat the Czech Republic’s Katerina Siniakova and Taylor Townsend of the US, who with two wins under their belt would move on no matter the result.
Elise Mertens, left, of Belgium fist-bumps Hsieh Su-wei of Taiwan during their women’s doubles first-round match against Zhang Shuai of China and Kristina Mladenovic of France at the US Open in New York Aug. 29.
Photo: AFP
Hsieh, who is making her fourth Finals appearance, earlier this year won the Australian Open women’s doubles title with Mertens and the mixed doubles title with Poland’s Jan Zielinski. The No. 6 doubles star last year came back from an 18-month hiatus to win three women’s doubles Grand Slam titles with three different partners.
She and Mertens, who also won Wimbledon together in 2021, helped earned their spot in this year’s Finals with victories at the BNP Paribas Open and the Rothesay Classic.
The Finals features the top eight players or pairs from the calendar year, with both categories separated into two groups. The top two finishers from each advances to the semi-finals.
China’s Zheng Qinwen celebrates after earning a point against Kazakhstan’s Elena Rybakina during their women’s singles match at the WTA Finals in Riyadh on Monday.
Photo: AFP
In the White Group, seventh seeds Chan and Kudermetova were last night to play fifth seeds Caroline Dolehide and Desirae Krawczyk of the US.
Chan, making her third appearance in the Finals and her first since 2019, and Kudermetova on Sunday lost 7-6 (7/6), 6-4 to Canada’s Gabriela Dabrowski and New Zealand’s Erin Routliffe.
Meanwhile, Aryna Sabalenka on Monday secured qualification for the singles semi-finals stage with a 6-3, 7-5 victory over Jasmine Paolini, as Zheng Qinwen ended Elena Rybakina’s chances of moving on.
With two round-robin wins in as many matches this week in Saudi Arabia, Sabalenka guaranteed herself passage to the final four as the winner of the Purple Group.
The Belarusian top seed is also just one victory away from locking down the year-end No. 1 ranking, which she is in a direct battle for with Iga Swiatek.
Earlier, Zheng improved her chances of advancing with a 7-6 (7/4), 3-6, 6-1 victory over world No. 5 Rybakina.
Zheng apologized to the crowd during her on-court interview for yelling: “Don’t shout more” at some of her supporters at a crucial moment in the final set.
She thanked them for their support and later acknowledged she could have handled the moment better.
“I felt today in such an important moment, when they shout so hard my name, my heart rate goes up. So I hold and hold, until one moment I can’t hold more,” Zheng said during her post-match news conference. “After I’m feeling a bit bad because if I can control my emotions a bit better, I was supposed not to say that to my crowd.”
