Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and her Polish partner, Jan Zielinski, on Thursday advanced to the mixed doubles semi-final at Wimbledon in a tight battle that ended in a super tiebreaker.
The seventh-seeded duo, who won the Australian Open mixed doubles title earlier this year and reached the semi-finals of the French Open, needed 125 minutes to beat Britain’s Jamie Murray and the US’ Taylor Townsend 7-6, 6-7 (10-5).
Hsieh and Zielinski took the first set with a 7-2 win in the tiebreaker and seemed poised to close out the match in the second set tiebreaker when they took a 4-0 lead.
Photo: AFP
With the Taiwan-Poland duo just three points away from victory, Murray and Townsend pulled back and evened the match by winning the tiebreaker 9-7 on their third set point.
That momentum carried over to the deciding first-to-10 super-tiebreaker, when Murray and Townsend sped to a 5-2 lead, but Hsieh and Zielinski broke out with the help of a double fault by their opponents and eventually won 10-5.
They are to next face New Zealand’s Michael Venus and Erin Routliffe in the semi-finals.
Photo: AFP
Hsieh has also reached the women’s doubles semi-finals at Wimbledon with partner, Belgium’s Elise Mertens. The top seeds in the tournament, at press time last night they were scheduled to play Czech Katerina Siniakova and Townsend for a spot in the final.
Hsieh and Mertens won the women’s doubles at the Australian Open in January, but were ousted in the second round at the French Open.
Czech 31st seed Barbora Krejcikova is to face Italy’s Jasmine Paolini in the Wimbledon final after battling back for a shock 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 win over former champion, Kazakhstan’s Elena Rybakina, on Thursday.
Photo: AFP
Just hours after Paolini beat tearful Croatian Donna Vekic 2-6, 6-4, 7-6 (10-8) in the longest women’s semi-final at the All England Club, it was Krejcikova’s turn to dig deep for victory against fourth seeded Rybakina in two hours and seven minutes on Centre Court.
Krejcikova is to face seventh seed Paolini today in what will be the second Grand Slam final of the 28-year-old’s career after her French Open triumph in 2021.
“I’m so proud about my game and my fighting spirit today,” Krejcikova said.
The Czech started this year with a run to the quarter-finals of the Australian Open, but a first round exit at the French Open was a major setback.
She struggled with a back injury and illness, winning just three singles matches in the five months before finally finding her form in remarkable style at Wimbledon.
Krejcikova shocked 11th seed Danielle Collins in the fourth round and former French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko in the quarter-finals, before turning her sights on Rybakina.
The two-time Wimbledon doubles champion is now one win away from an unexpected triumph in the singles.
“Unbelievable. It is very tough to explain, but a lot of joy and a lot of emotions,” Krejcikova said. “When I broke her in the second set, I started to be in the zone and I didn’t want to leave the zone.”
Rybakina had been in formidable form, dropping just one set as she extended her impressive All England Club record to 19 wins from 21 matches.
The 25-year-old, who won Wimbledon in 2022, made a fast start with two quick breaks for an early 4-0 lead in a one-sided first set against Krejcikova.
In her first Wimbledon semi-final, Krejcikova turned the tide in the second set, landing a priceless break in the sixth game.
She leveled the match on her sixth set point, making it the first time in 20 years that both Wimbledon women’s semi-finals had gone to the final set.
The Czech held all the momentum and she eventually wore down Rybakina, who had committed more than 35 unforced errors by the time she surrendered her serve in the decisive, seventh game of the final set.
“Barbora played very well but I think it’s still a positive tournament for me,” Rybakina said.
Paolini had never won a main draw match at Wimbledon before this year, but the world No. 7 tenaciously saw off Vekic in two hours and 51 minutes to secure a second successive Grand Slam final appearance.
The 28-year-old, who lost the French Open final to Iga Swiatek last month, is the first Italian woman to reach the Wimbledon final.
Paolini, who also made the Australia Open last 16 in January, had not gone past the second round in any Grand Slam before this year.
Without a win at the All England Club heading into the tournament, Paolini now has six victories under her belt and has dropped just two sets in the process.
“The last months have been crazy for me. It is a dream. I was watching finals when I was a kid on this Wimbledon,” she said. “You know there is no place better than here to fight for every ball and every point. I will remember this forever.”
Vekic paid the price for 57 unforced errors, with the semi-final fittingly ending on another wild forehand from the unseeded Croatian.
Unable to contain her frustration at letting 3-1 and 4-3 leads slip in the last set, Vekic broke down in tears in the closing stages of a roller-coaster clash.
“I was crying because I had so much pain. I didn’t know how I could keep playing,” Vekic said. “I thought I was going to die in the third set. I had so much pain in my arm, in my leg.”
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