Taiwanese world No. 3 women’s doubles star Hsieh Su-wei and Belgian partner Elise Mertens on Saturday dominated Asia Muhammad of the US and Aldila Sutjiadi of Indonesia to advance to the final at the Rothesay Classic Birmingham.
Top seeds Hsieh and Mertens — who are eyeing their third doubles title this year after victories at BNP Paribas Open and the Australia Open — were to play Japan’s Miyu Kato and China’s Zhang Shuai in the final on Ann Jones Centre Court last night after press time.
Hsieh and Mertens beat Muhammad and Sutjiadi 6-1, 6-2 in a swift 57 minutes at Edgbaston Priory Club.
Photo: Reuters
Kato and Zhang earlier rolled over third seeds Marie Bouzkova of the Czech Republic and Sara Sorribes Tormo of Spain 6-3, 6-2 in 1 hour, 10 minutes.
Later this week, Hsieh is to pair up with Sloane Stephens of the US to start their campaign at the Rothesay International in Eastbourne, England.
Meanwhile, at the Ecotrans Ladies Open in Berlin, Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and partner Veronika Kudermetova of Russia were last night after press time to play China’s Wang Xinyu and Zheng Saisai in their women’s double final.
Chan and Kudermetova on Saturday beat the Czech Republic’s Linda Noskova and Katerina Siniakova 6-4, 6-3, while Wang and Zheng earlier defeated second seeds Demi Schuurs of the Netherlands and Luisa Stefani of Brazil 6-7, 7-6 (7/4).
Chan and Kudermetova are this week to start their women’s doubles campaign at the Bad Homburg Open, where Taiwanese Wu Fang-hsien and partner Arantxa Rus of the Netherlands face a tough opener against top seeds Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US and Ellen Perez of Australia.
In the women’s singles in Berlin on Saturday, Anna Kalinskaya defeated Victoria Azarenka 6-1, 6-7 (3/7), 6-1 in a see-saw semi-final.
Kalinskaya raced through the first set in 26 minutes. After Azarenka went 4-1 up in the second set, Kalinskaya fought back to force a tiebreak, which she lost.
Kalinskaya again galloped through the third set, and was only slowed at 5-1 when Azarenka saved three match points from 40-0, but two unreturned serves sealed the victory.
The second semi-final was suspended until yesterday with Jessica Pegula leading top seed and doubles partner Coco Gauff 7-5, 6-6.
The day had started with three quarter-finals delayed by rain from the day before, two were cut short as Aryna Sabalenka and Ons Jabeur joined the procession of injured stars limping off the grass in the Wimbledon warm-up event.
Kalinskaya was one of the beneficiaries as second-seeded Belarusian Sabalenka retired trailing 5-1 in the first set.
Eighth-seeded Jabeur had gone toe-to-toe with Gauff before losing a one-hour 14-minute first set in a tiebreak 11/9 before packing her rackets in her bag and walking off.
“It doesn’t feel like a win,” Gauff said on court. “Especially as we had such a great first set.”
“It’s not the way you want to finish a match, especially with someone who is so nice on and off the court,” she added.
Gauff said the Tunisian had indicated she was not seriously injured.
“I know she’s going to feel better tomorrow and should be fine for Wimbledon,” she said.
Additional reporting by AFP
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