Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei (謝淑薇) and Jan Zielinski of Poland yesterday won a match tiebreaker to claim the Australian Open mixed doubles title with an nail-biting 6-7 (5/7), 6-4, 11-9 victory over Desirae Krawczyk of the US and Britain’s Neal Skupski.
The victory earned Hsieh her first mixed doubles Grand Slam title, and the 38-year-old is also in the running to win her seventh major women’s doubles trophy, having reached Sunday’s final with Elise Mertens of Belgium.
“It was a really tough match, but we made it,” Hsieh said. “Thank you so much for such a great match, it was really fun on court to play you guys.”
Photo: AP
“We didn’t have anyone to play mixed doubles with. We found each other on the looking list and it’s worked out pretty well,” Zielinski said. “Maybe we can keep it going.”
The match was a thrilling encounter of contrasting styles, with Krawczyk’s raw power coming up against Hsieh’s inventive shotmaking as the first set went down to the wire.
Krawczyk and Skupski broke to take a 4-3 lead, but faltered when serving out the set, allowing Hsieh and Zielinski to break back and level at 5-5. As the opener headed into a tiebreak, it was the British-American duo who held their nerve.
The second seeds broke again to take a 4-2 lead in the second set, but Hsieh and Zielinski roared back with two service breaks of their own to send the match into a 10-point match tiebreak.
Hsieh and Zielinski raced into a 4-0 lead in the decider, but the second seeds leveled at 7-7, with Skupski then bringing up a championship point at 9-8 with a second serve ace, but the British-American pair were unable to covert.
It was Hsieh and Zielinski who claimed the next three points, with Zielinski sealing a memorable victory in just under two hours with a blistering forehand.
Hsieh has won six women’s doubles Grand Slam titles — four at Wimbledon in 2013, 2019, 2021 and last year, and two at the French Open in 2014 and last year.
Her best result at the Australian Open was reaching the women’s doubles final in 2020 with Barbora Strycova of the Czech Republic.
Additional reporting by CNA
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