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.
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