Taiwanese tennis star Hsieh Su-wei secured her first victory at the WTA Finals on Thursday, keeping her qualification hopes alive alongside her partner.
The 40-year-old veteran teamed up with Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko to defeat the seventh-seeded pair of Elise Mertens of Belgium and Zhang Shuai of China in straight sets, 7–5, 6–3, during the round-robin match (Yahoo Sports Taiwan). The win marks a turnaround for the fifth-seeded duo in their second year playing together at the season-ending tournament.
Hsieh and Ostapenko entered the fixture looking to recover from a tough opening loss against France’s Kristina Mladenovic and China’s Guo Hanyu. In that initial match, the pair dropped a 10–12 super tiebreak after squandering four match points.
The second match presented another stiff test when the Taiwanese-Latvian partnership fell behind 1–3 in the opening set. Both teams traded service breaks in a volatile sequence until the score reached 5–5. Hsieh and Ostapenko then held serve before breaking their opponents again to take the first set 7–5.
The second set mirrored the tense rhythm of the opener with multiple breaks of serve. The fifth seeds seized control in the eighth game to pull ahead 5–3, setting up Ostapenko to serve out the match. They converted their first match point to seal the victory in one hour and 23 minutes.
Speaking after the contest, Hsieh praised her partner’s contributions on the court.
“She brings energy to our side with her strong baseline game and infectious smile,” Hsieh said during her on-court interview.
Ostapenko acknowledged the mental hurdle of bouncing back from their previous loss.
“It was not easy to shake off the disappointment of letting the last win slip away, so I am very pleased with how we performed today,” Ostapenko said.
The straight-sets triumph leaves Hsieh and Ostapenko in contention for a spot in the semifinals as the group stage continues.
