Taiwanese players on Sunday claimed two titles at Wimbledon, with Hsieh Su-wei (謝淑薇) claiming the women’s doubles title and Latisha Chan (詹詠然) picking up a second consecutive mixed doubles title at a Grand Slam.
Third seeds Hsieh and Barbora Strycova defeated fourth seeds Gabriela Dabrowski of Canada and Xu Yifan (徐一璠) of China 6-2, 6-4 in 66 minutes on Centre Court.
The Taiwanese-Czech duo saved four of five break points and converted four of six, winning 67 percent of points on their second serve and hitting six winners to claim Hsieh’s third Grand Slam title and a first for Strycova, who moved to the top of the women’s doubles world rankings.
Photo: AFP
“Oh, my God, there is no word to describe the feeling,” Strycova said in the post-match news conference. “It’s kind of like unreal, but in the same time it’s amazing.”
“I can’t thank [Hsieh] enough to help me pick up No. 1,” Strycova said. “It feels, again, unreal. It’s amazing. It was my goal at the beginning of this year, that I want to become No. 1. It was a really big goal. It happens right now, especially here at this moment, this tournament, my favorite place. It’s a fairy-tale. It has been two weeks of amazing moments I will never forget.”
Hsieh and Strycova became the first duo to lift the doubles crown at Wimbledon without dropping a set since Serena and Venus Williams in 2009.
Photo: Reuters
It was Hsieh’s third Grand Slam doubles title after her victories with China’s Peng Shuai (彭帥) at Wimbledon in 2013 and the French Open in 2014.
“From the first moment we step on the court together, we just laughed and we just enjoyed,” Strycova said. “We kept it through the whole tournament. I think that was also the biggest key [why] we were playing the way we played.”
“We were flying everywhere, catching the ball back as well,” Hsieh said. “It was really fun. We needed to try so hard to win every point.”
Photo: AFP
Earlier in the mixed doubles final on Court 1, eighth seeds Chan and Ivan Dodig defeated Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia and Robert Lindstedt of Sweden 6-2, 6-3 in 70 minutes.
The Taiwanese-Croatian duo saved three of four break points and converted four of nine, winning 77 percent of their points and first serve, and hitting six winners in Chan’s first-ever Wimbledon final.
Despite the impressive win, Chan said that she and her partner had been disappointed not to meet Andy Murray and Serena Williams in the final.
“It was a shame that we couldn’t play Andy and Serena in the final, we had been really looking forward to that,” she said. “It is great to see the big names playing mixed doubles, especially together the way Andy and Serena did. I think it is important for mixed doubles that that happened.”
Chan also explained how the beginnings of their working relationship was not so smooth after she was taken aback when Dodig first approached her in the Indian Wells players’ restaurant last year.
“This guy just popped up and said: ‘Have you got a partner for the French Open?’” she said. “I thought: ‘I have never talked to this guy before, let me think about it.’”
It was Chan’s fourth Grand Slam doubles title after claiming the women’s doubles title at the US Open in 2017 and her mixed doubles victories with Dodig at the French Open last year and last month.
The duo now have their eyes set on the mixed doubles titles at the US Open and next year’s Australian Open.
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