Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Czech partner Barbora Strycova, playing their first tournament as a pairing, on Thursday stunned the third seeds to advance to today’s final of the women’s doubles at the BNP Paribas Open, in which they are due to take on top-seeded Russians Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina.
Unseeded Hsieh and Strycova defeated Gabriela Dabrowski of Canada and Xu Yifan of China 7-6 (7/2), 6-3 in 1 hour, 15 minutes in their semi-final in Indian Wells, California.
The Taiwanese-Czech duo saved one of two break points and converted three of four, winning 67 of the 118 points contested to book their place in the final.
“Isn’t it amazing?” a breathless Strycova told the WTA Web site after the match. “I feel great. It’s really nice to be on court with Su-wei. We just enjoy ourselves and are trying different things on court. It’s working and we don’t have any pressure on ourselves. We’re just enjoying playing together.”
Although they are unseeded in California, Hsieh is a former doubles world No. 1 and a two-time Grand Slam champion, while Strycova is the world No. 20.
“It was very tough, we were losing 3-5 in the first set. The key was moving all the time and staying active at the net and trying to serve well,” Strycova said. “In these kinds of matches, you have to go for everything and be ready, because they’re such a good team that crosses a lot. They don’t give you much rhythm. We also returned very well today.”
In the final, Hsieh and Strycova are to face the top seeds and the WTA Tour’s longest running elite pairing after Makarova and Vesnina defeated fourth seeds Timea Babos of Hungary and Kristina Mladenovic of France 6-4, 6-2 in 68 minutes.
Strycova believes that gives the underdogs an advantage.
“I don’t want to say we have nothing to lose, but more experienced teams know what they expect from one another and we still don’t,” the Czech said. “It’s also nice because we know each others’ games individually and after four matches we know a little bit more.”
“We know them both individually,” Vesnina told the WTA Web site. “We’ve played so many times against Barbora and Su-wei ... They’re a great team. They’re in the finals of Indian Wells, so that means they’re playing well this week. We’ll try to show our best tennis and we’ll need our best tennis to win this kind of title.”
INDIAN WELLS SINGLES
AFP and Reuters
In the women’s singles, seven-time Grand Slam winner Venus Williams on Thursday reached the competition semi-finals for the first time since 2001 by routing Carla Suarez Navarro of Spain 6-3, 6-2.
Despite windy conditions, Williams improved to 5-2 on the season, including a third-round win over sister Serena, who was making her return to the WTA after having a baby.
Venus, who at 37 is the oldest player in the women’s draw, has played sparingly this year, but is just beginning to step up her game.
“We’ve had a lot of great matches,” Williams said of playing Suarez Navarro. “I was glad that I was able to close it out.”
She dominated Suarez Navarro, who became increasingly frustrated and had to call her coach a couple of times to come down to the court in between sets for advice.
In the men’s singles, South Korean Chung Hyeon managed to hold on against Roger Federer a little longer this time, but only just, as the Swiss maestro advanced to the semi-finals on Thursday 7-5, 6-1.
Chung’s fairytale run at the Australian Open in January came to a crashing halt when he retired with foot blisters while trailing Federer 6-1, 5-2 in their semi-final.
Federer was ruthless with his 21-year-old opponent and took his unbeaten run this year to 16 matches, equaling his record from 12 years ago.
Chung said he had enjoyed going toe-to-toe with Federer in a tight first set.
“I was down one break and I’m just trying to stay calm and I’m just trying to learn from Roger,” the South Korean told the ATP Web site. “And I come back, five-all, and he played good. I’m really happy to play against Roger.”
Federer is to meet Borna Coric, who defeated world No. 9 Kevin Anderson 2-6, 6-4, 7-6 (3).
The 21-year-old Croatian had initially looked out-gunned by the big-serving South African, who had won all three of their previous meetings without dropping a set.
After weathering an onslaught of huge serves in the first set, Coric was able to force longer rallies in the second and third, where his speed and accuracy allowed him to control points.
“I didn’t start very well. He was hitting the ball very big, and I just couldn’t find my rhythm on the ball,” Coric said. “I started going more for the serve. And then I broke him earlier in the second set, which was really helpful.”
The match appeared all but over in the third when a frustrated Coric double faulted to hand Anderson a break for a 4-2 lead, but the world No. 49 broke straight back and went on to force a tiebreaker.
Anderson was ragged thereafter and Coric pumped his fist in triumph after the seventh seed sent a forehand long to hand the Croatian the biggest win of his career.
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