Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei claimed her 18th career WT Tour doubles title and her first since 2014 at the Hungarian Ladies Open in Budapest yesterday.
Fourth seeds Hsieh and Oksana Kalashnikova defeated Arina Rodionova of Australia and Galina Voskoboeva of Kazakhstan 6-3, 4-6, 10-4 in 1 hour, 21 minutes.
The Taiwanese-Georgian duo saved six of 10 break points and converted five of 10, winning 66 of the 124 points contested to claim their first title as a doubles pairing.
Photo: AFP
It was Hsieh’s first title since winning the French Open with Peng Shuai of China in 2014, the second Grand Slam doubles title of her career after the duo won Wimbledon the previous year.
It was Kalashnikova’s fourth career title and her first since claiming the crown in ’s-Hertogenbosch, the Netherlands, with Yaroslava Shvedova last year.
DUBAI CHAMPIONSHIPS
Photo: AFP
AP, DUBAI, United Arab Emirates
Elina Svitolina of Ukraine is set to debut in the top 10 today after winning her second title of the season at the Dubai Tennis Championships on Saturday.
Svitolina dominated Caroline Wozniacki 6-4, 6-2 in a final that started two hours late because of multiple rain showers.
“It’s big relief, because I knew that if I win this match, I’m gonna be top 10,” Svitolina said. “There was extra pressure [and] when I was warming up, added even more pressure because they announced it. It didn’t help.”
Svitolina earned her final berth by knocking out top seed Angelique Kerber in a three-set semi-final.
The Dubai tournament is the most prestigious title of the six that Svitolina has won. The previous five were lower-level WTA Tour events, including the Taiwan Open earlier this month. She is on a 12-match winning streak.
Svitolina has won both times she has played against Wozniacki, although the first at the Miami Open last year was a much harder victory.
Both players were content to remain fastened to the baseline in Dubai, but Svitolina’s firepower set them apart.
“I kind of felt like I ran out of steam a little bit and she took advantage of that,” Wozniacki said.
“She stepped it up a little bit and that was kind of that. Obviously, it’s frustrating when you see what you want to do out there and you just can’t do it,” she said.
It was Wozniacki’s second consecutive final in as many weeks, but she also left without the winner’s trophy from Doha last week. She was now 25-19 in career finals.
“I can take a lot of positives with me from this week,” Wozniacki said. “I’m hoping for a good season.”
In the doubles final, Russian second seeds Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina survived multiple rain delays to edge sixth seeds Andrea Hlavackova of the Czech Republic and Peng Shuai of China 6-2, 4-6, 10-7 in 2 hours, 10 minutes.
“Winning the trophy like here in Dubai, it’s very prestigious,” Vesnina told the WTA Tour Web site. “It’s the first time we played final here. We were just passing by the corridor and we saw the trophy. We were just really pleased with the result, because winning such a big title, it’s always giving us some confidence, some positive emotions.”
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