Taiwanese tennis star Hsieh Su-wei and her Latvian partner, Jelena Ostapenko, yesterday failed to defend her women’s doubles title at the Australian Open after losing against top seeds Katerina Siniakova and Taylor Townsend 6-2, 6-7 (4), 6-3 in the final.
The victory at Rod Laver Arena gave Siniakova and Townsend their second Grand Slam title after their Wimbledon triumph last year while it was the 10th major title for Czech Siniakova, the doubles world No. 1.
“Big thanks goes to Taylor, we are having fun and that’s the most important, so thank you for playing with me. I’m really enjoying it,” Siniakova said after lifting the trophy with her US partner.
Photo: AFP
For Townsend, the win was a full-circle moment in her career after she won the title as a junior in Melbourne in 2012.
“This is super special to me, the last time I played on this court I was 15,” she said. “This tournament was the start of me being able to live out my dream. I honestly didn’t think that it was possible for me to be playing on this stage.”
Siniakova and Townsend had several opportunities to break early on and finally converted a break point to go 2-1 up as Hsieh and Ostapenko struggled with their serve.
Photo: AFP
The third seeds quickly found themselves 5-1 down as Siniakova and Townsend consolidated a double break before the American sealed the set with an emphatic volley at the net.
After they traded early breaks in the second set, Townsend was once again effective at the net with an overhead smash that gave them a 4-3 lead before Siniakova held her serve to put them one game away from the title.
However, Ostapenko and Hsieh, playing in just their second tournament as a pairing, broke back in the 10th game when Townsend served for the title.
A frustrated Siniakova threw her racket on the ground before the third seeds won the tiebreak and forced a decider. The Czech then lost her composure and was broken in the first game of the third set with three double faults.
However, they quickly regrouped to break back, and Siniakova converted a crucial break point to go 5-3 up.
This time, Siniakova served for the title, and despite another double fault with three championship points, they sealed victory when Townsend fired a volley at the net down the middle to win in two hours and 27 minutes.
“I think for our second tournament, playing a Grand Slam final is not bad,” Ostapenko said. “Together, I hope there are many more trophies for us.”
Hsieh, who celebrated her birthday earlier this month and has nine Grand Slam titles, last year won the Australian Open women’s doubles title with Belgium’s Elise Mertens.
The Taiwanese was also unable to defend her mixed doubles title this year, after she and Jan Zielinski of Poland, with whom she won at the Australian Open and Wimbledon last year, fell to a 6-4, 6-4 defeat to Irina Khromacheva of Russia and Jackson Withrow of the US in the third round.
Additional reporting by staff writer
Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and partner Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia yesterday advanced to the women’s doubles final at the Australian Open after defeating New Zealand’s Erin Routliffe and Gabriela Dabrowski of Canada 7-6 (7/3), 3-6, 6-3 in their semi-final. Hsieh has won nine Grand Slam doubles titles and has a shot at a 10th tomorrow, when the Latvian-Taiwanese duo are to play Taylor Townsend of the US and Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic in the championship match at the A$96.5 million (US$61 million) outdoor hard court tournament at Melbourne Park. Townsend and Siniakova eliminated Russian pair Diana Shnaider and Mirra Andreeva 6-7
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