Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Peng Shuai of China beat Zimbabwe’s Cara Black and Sania Mirza of India in the BNP Paribas Open women’s doubles final on Saturday, improving their record to 11-0 in WTA Tour doubles finals.
Top seeds, doubles world No. 2 Hsieh and world No. 1 Peng, had to fight back from 4-2 down in the first set and No. 5 seeds Black and Mirza had a set point at 6-5 — but the cross-strait duo never stopped fighting, rallying to take the opening set in a tiebreak and going on to a 7-6 (7/5), 6-2 straight-sets victory.
Peng told the WTA Web site that their perfect finals record was never on their minds.
Photo: AFP
“We didn’t think about it,” Peng said. “Every time we just try to fight every point. Like today, first set we were down, it was really windy and they’re a really good doubles team. Cara Black has lots of experience in doubles, especially, and they were giving us a lot of pressure. So we’re happy we won.”
Hsieh and Peng now have 11 WTA Tour doubles titles — Bali in 2008; Sydney, Rome and Beijing in 2009; Rome, Wimbledon, Cincinnati, Guangzhou and the WTA Championships last year; and Doha and Indian Wells this year.
However, they said that they refuse to let their No. 1 ranking change who they are, or how they feel when they are on court together.
“We’re the No. 1 team and people may know us more now, but we still feel the same as before,” Peng told the WTA Web site.
“All of this is nice because it helps us become more confident and believe in ourselves more on the court, and we’re more motivated now too, but nothing has changed. We’re still the same people,” Peng said.
“We’ve known each other a very long time,” Hsieh told the WTA Web site. “Sometimes, we don’t practice together — like at Wimbledon we never practiced together — but every time we go on court together, we try [to win] every point. If she misses a shot, I give her support. When I miss, she supports me. It’s very important in doubles. When we get into a final, we don’t think, we just try [to win] every point. This is the key for us.”
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique