Taiwan’s Chan Yung-jan (詹詠然) and Martina Hingis of Switzerland won their first doubles title as a partnership on Saturday at the BNP Paribas Open.
The sixth seeds, playing in just their third tournament together, took 1 hour, 30 minutes to see off the challenge of Czech duo Lucie Hradecka and Katerina Siniakova 7-6 (7/4), 6-2 to claim the title in Indian Wells, California.
“A huge thanks to my partner Latisha [Chan Yung-jan], we’re playing in our third tournament together and she helped me in the previous two to just believe in myself again,” Hingis said at the trophy presentation.
Photo: AFP
“I won here a couple of years ago with Sania [Mirza], so to be back here on this court again and playing the final is amazing,” she said.
The Taiwanese-Swiss duo saved three of eight break points and converted all seven they created, winning 67 of the 126 points contested.
“It felt like we got better each match, and start to trust each other and know what to do on big points,” Hingis told the WTA Web site.
“I mean, today, even in the first set we were sometimes back, but we came back because we knew we could come out of difficult situations,” she said.
Chan, a former runner-up at Indian Wells who hit the winning volley on championship point, said the pair had taken a couple of tournaments to come together as a partnership.
“For [our] first two tournaments in [the] Middle East, we were trying. We know each other as opponent. We didn’t know how to work together and we spent a lot of time on court, off court, try to know each other and try to build up the trust between each other,” the Taiwanese told the WTA Web site.
“I think those two tournaments, even though we didn’t win the title or didn’t get into the final, but still help us a lot,” she said.
“I think that’s actually key. As a partner, you can’t expect, once you play together, you can win the titles all the time. You still need time. Those two tournaments help us a lot here,” Chan said.
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