Taiwanese tennis veteran Hsieh Su-wei and her Latvian partner Jelena Ostapenko came up just short in the women’s doubles final at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships on Saturday, falling 6-7(5), 4-6 to top-seeded Katerina Siniakova and Taylor Townsend.
The loss marked Hsieh’s second runner-up finish of the season against the Czech-US duo, following their intense showdown in last month’s Australian Open final.
Hsieh and Ostapenko had a strong start in Saturday’s match, leading 6-5 in the opening set and holding three set points. However, they were unable to convert their chances, allowing their opponents to force a tiebreak, which they lost 5-7.
Photo: Reuters
Despite showing resilience in the second set and narrowing a 2-5 deficit to 4-5, Hsieh and Ostapenko were unable to break their opponents’ serve again, conceding the championship in straight sets.
Russian teenager Mirra Andreeva beat Clara Tauson 7-6 (1), 6-1 to earn the biggest title of her career.
The victory would earn Andreeva her debut in the top 10 of the rankings next week — the first 17-year-old to achieve that since Nicole Vaidisova in 2007.
It caps quite a week for Andreeva, who also had wins over 2023 Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova, five-time major champion Iga Swiatek and 2022 Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina to become the youngest player to defeat three major champions at a single event since Maria Sharapova at the 2004 WTA Finals. She also became the youngest player to reach the final of a WTA 1000 event.
Andreeva’s only other title was the Iasi Open in Romania last year.
Juventus on Sunday stopped Inter from replacing SSC Napoli at the top of Serie A by beating their fierce rivals 1-0 and moving into the UEFA Champions League positions. Francisco Conceicao made sure that Napoli would stay two points ahead of reigning champions Inter by classily tucking home the winning goal 16 minutes before the end of an entertaining contest in Turin. Portugal attacker Conceicao netted his fourth goal of the season in all competitions after brilliant work from Randal Kolo Muani to give Juve a third straight league win. Juve are in fourth place on 46 points, ahead on goal-difference from SS
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