Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei improved her doubles ranking to a career-best third in the world after teaming up with Peng Shuai of China to win the doubles title at the WTA Championships in Istanbul, Turkey, on Sunday.
The duo became the first Asians to win the doubles title in the year-end event’s history after beating Russians Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina 6-4, 7-5 in 1 hour, 46 minutes.
After the victory, Hsieh moved up a notch in the rankings from fourth to third, while Peng rose from fifth to fourth, pulling closer to the world’s top ranked team of Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci of Italy.
However, whether the two will get a shot at the coveted No. 1 spot remains uncertain, because Peng has been rumored to be interested in devoting more time to singles next year. Hsieh also admitted during the season that it was tough for her to find a balance between singles and doubles, and her singles ranking has fallen from 25th at the end of last year to 87th.
Asked about their future, Hsieh told the WTA Web site: “We haven’t really discussed it yet.”
“Do we play together next year?” Peng said with a giggle.
“It depends on if we fight or not in the next two months,” Hsieh joked.
“We’re just looking forward to some rest time now and then we’ll train together,” Peng added.
Even if one or both players are tempted to devote more time to singles next year, there is no doubt that Hsieh and Peng’s doubles partnership has been lucrative this year.
Hsieh, who will turn 28 in early January, won US$1,109,280 on the WTA Tour this year, about two-thirds of the US$1.67 million she had won in her previous 12 years as a professional.
Nearly US$760,000 of that was won in doubles, helped by the big paydays for winning Wimbledon (US$234,783) and the WTA Championships (US$230,000).
In another argument for the two to stick together, Hsieh and Peng have a 9-0 record in WTA doubles finals and they won five of those events this year — Rome, Wimbledon, Cincinnati, Guangzhou and the WTA Championships.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but