Top seeds Hsieh Su-wei (謝淑薇) of Taiwan and China’s Peng Shuai (彭帥) battled through to the semi-finals of the Mutua Madrid Open women’s doubles on Thursday, a win that secured the Taiwanese player a share of the world No. 1 ranking.
In the quarter-finals at the Spanish capital’s Caja Magica, Hsieh and Peng took on fifth seeds Cara Black of Zimbabwe and India’s Sania Mirza, whom they had lost to in the semi-finals in Tokyo last year, but eventually beat in March to win the final in Indian Wells, California.
The cross-strait duo rallied from 5-2 down in the first set, but ultimately lost the set 5-7. They then quickly grabbed a 5-0 lead in the second set and shortly thereafter forced a deciding super tiebreak.
Photo: AFP
After going down 3-0, they staged a rally and went on to a 5-7, 6-1, 10-8 victory — improving to 17-4 on clay and confirming Hsieh’s elevation to the No. 1 ranking.
“We played well in the first set and even better in the second,” Peng told the WTA Web site. “In the tiebreak, both teams played really well and we had some amazing points. They are a great team. We’re really happy to win.”
The victory confirmed that Hsieh will be ranked joint world No. 1 in Monday’s new WTA Tour doubles rankings.
Earlier this year, Peng became the first Chinese player ever to hold a world No. 1 ranking, male or female, singles or doubles, and now Hsieh will achieve the same feat for Taiwan.
“It is a great accomplishment for Hsieh Su-wei to join Peng Shuai as coworld No. 1s,” WTA Tour chief executive Stacey Allaster said of Thursday’s announcement. “Not only are Hsieh and Peng a great doubles team, but they are an inspiration to the fans throughout the Asia-Pacific region.”
“Reaching No. 1 in the world is a great feeling,” Hsieh told the WTA Web site. “We have been working really hard as a team. I was very proud of Peng reaching No. 1 earlier this year and now I am happy we can share it.”
Hsieh and Peng have won 11 WTA Tour doubles titles together and are unbeaten in finals.
Next up for Hsieh and Peng are the surprise pairing of the tournament, Garbine Muguruza and Carla Suarez Navarro.
The Spanish duo’s latest victory was a narrow 2-6, 7-5, 10-8 defeat of US pairing Raquel Kops-Jones and Abigail Spears.
Also making it through to the semi-finals were second seeds and 2012 Madrid champions Italian duo Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci, who had a 7-5, 6-3 win over Vania King of the US and China’s Zheng Jie (鄭潔).
They were due to face Spain’s Anabel Medina Garrigues and Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan, who were the 6-4, 6-2 winners over defending champions Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia and Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat
RSS