Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei (謝淑薇) on Saturday won her third Wimbledon women’s doubles title when she and Belgian partner Elise Mertens defeated Russia’s Elena Vesnina and Veronika Kudermetova.
“It’s not always easy to play in the final, and the opponent will fight super hard,” Hsieh said ahead of the match. “We all know it’s the last match so we will fight until the last point definitely.”
Her determination paid off for the third-seeded pair, who were competing in their fifth tournament together. They saved two match points in the second set to win 3-6, 7-5, 9-7.
Photo: Reuters
Unseeded Kudermetova and Vesnina had two match points at 5-4 in the second set, the second one producing an incredible rally that Hsieh eventually won with a volley.
As the third set dragged on, 35-year-old Hsieh finished off a gripping contest with a backhand winner.
Hsieh and Mertens clinched a back-and-forth third set when Hsieh hit a backhand winner to break Vesnina’s serve.
Photo: AFP
“Some of her volleys, I can’t do. She’s a magician,” Mertens, the world’s No. 1 doubles player, said of Hsieh.
“That felt like seven hours,” Mertens said of the two-and-a-half-hour battle on a packed Centre Court. “There were nerves, but we managed it well in the end... We are very happy that we could close it out.”
“It was such a tough match,” Mertens added. “We just kept going... We never gave up. That’s the fighting spirit we had today that maybe made with the difference.’’
President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday sent a message to congratulate Hsieh on her achievement.
She said on Twitter that Hsieh’s victory at Wimbledon would inspire the next generation of tennis players in Taiwan and around the world.
The Sports Administration also offered its congratulations and promised to continue to support tennis players as they work to achieve a higher global ranking.
Hsieh won her previous Wimbledon doubles titles with different partners. It was a first for Mertens, who has also won the Australian Open and US Open doubles.
Hsieh won the 2013 Wimbledon title with China’s Peng Shuai and the 2019 trophy alongside Barbora Strycova of the Czech Republic.
Additional reporting by Shelley Shan
‘DANGEROUS GAME’: Legislative Yuan budget cuts have already become a point of discussion for Democrats and Republicans in Washington, Elbridge Colby said Taiwan’s fall to China “would be a disaster for American interests” and Taipei must raise defense spending to deter Beijing, US President Donald Trump’s pick to lead Pentagon policy, Elbridge Colby, said on Tuesday during his US Senate confirmation hearing. The nominee for US undersecretary of defense for policy told the Armed Services Committee that Washington needs to motivate Taiwan to avoid a conflict with China and that he is “profoundly disturbed” about its perceived reluctance to raise defense spending closer to 10 percent of GDP. Colby, a China hawk who also served in the Pentagon in Trump’s first team,
SEPARATE: The MAC rebutted Beijing’s claim that Taiwan is China’s province, asserting that UN Resolution 2758 neither mentions Taiwan nor grants the PRC authority over it The “status quo” of democratic Taiwan and autocratic China not belonging to each other has long been recognized by the international community, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday in its rebuttal of Beijing’s claim that Taiwan can only be represented in the UN as “Taiwan, Province of China.” Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) yesterday at a news conference of the third session at the 14th National People’s Congress said that Taiwan can only be referred to as “Taiwan, Province of China” at the UN. Taiwan is an inseparable part of Chinese territory, which is not only history but
CROSSED A LINE: While entertainers working in China have made pro-China statements before, this time it seriously affected the nation’s security and interests, a source said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) late on Saturday night condemned the comments of Taiwanese entertainers who reposted Chinese statements denigrating Taiwan’s sovereignty. The nation’s cross-strait affairs authority issued the statement after several Taiwanese entertainers, including Patty Hou (侯佩岑), Ouyang Nana (歐陽娜娜) and Michelle Chen (陳妍希), on Friday and Saturday shared on their respective Sina Weibo (微博) accounts a post by state broadcaster China Central Television. The post showed an image of a map of Taiwan along with the five stars of the Chinese flag, and the message: “Taiwan is never a country. It never was and never will be.” The post followed remarks
INVESTMENT WATCH: The US activity would not affect the firm’s investment in Taiwan, where 11 production lines would likely be completed this year, C.C. Wei said Investments by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) in the US should not be a cause for concern, but rather seen as the moment that the company and Taiwan stepped into the global spotlight, President William Lai (賴清德) told a news conference at the Presidential Office in Taipei yesterday alongside TSMC chairman and chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家). Wei and US President Donald Trump in Washington on Monday announced plans to invest US$100 billion in the US to build three advanced foundries, two packaging plants, and a research and development center, after Trump threatened to slap tariffs on chips made
RSS