Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei has been branded an upset specialist so far this year, but it might be time to start thinking of her as a legitimate contender for WTA Tour titles.
Two days after humbling world No. 1 Naomi Osaka in three sets at the Miami Open, the cagey 33-year-old veteran on Monday topped former world No. 1 and 13th seed Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark 6-3, 6-7 (0/7), 6-2 in their round-of-16 match.
It was her fifth victory against a top-20 player this year and sent her to the first quarter-final of a WTA Premier Mandatory event in her career, where she was due to face 21st seed Anett Kontaveit of Estonia.
Photo: EPA-EFE
That followed a strong showing at the Dubai Open, where she best the 10th, fifth and fourth seeds to reach the semi-final of a WTA Premier 5 event for the first time.
Hsieh endured several shifts in momentum to secure victory against the Dane.
Twice within two points of victory in the second set on Wozniacki’s serve, Hsieh lost 11 of the final 12 points, including all seven in the tiebreaker, but she regained her touch at the start of the third, losing only two points in the first four games.
Prior to shocking British seventh seed Johanna Konta at the French Open in 2017, Hsieh was best known as a doubles specialist.
She was ranked No. 1 in doubles after winning Wimbledon in 2013 and the French Open in 2014 with Peng Shuai of China.
She was ranked as high as world No. 23 in singles in 2013, but had never defeated a top-10 player until ousting Konta.
Hsieh then went on to upset world No. 3 Garbine Muguruza of Spain and former world No. 1 Agnieszka Radwanska at last year’s Australian Open, before stunning world No. 1 Simona Halep of Romania at Wimbledon the same year to signal her arrival as a real singles threat.
The 33-year-old said after her win over Osaka that the constant support she has from her traveling team, including boyfriend Frederic Aniere, has been a blessing.
“I was traveling [by] myself for a long time. I had a part-time coach. It wasn’t easy for a player to play in the [WTA] Tour when they don’t get a sponsor or they don’t get help,” she told the WTA Web site.
Though she has been worn down occasionally at the end of matches, Hsieh has shown unprecedented resilience in third sets, including coming from 5-1 down to stun fourth seed Karolina Pliskova in Dubai.
That might stem from a more regular fitness regimen.
“A long time ago I was doing less fitness and my tennis level was not going good like this year. The fitness was not very good,” Hsieh said.
In the second round of the women’s doubles, Taiwanese sisters Chan Hao-ching and Latisha Chan advanced to the quarter-finals with a 7-5, 6-2 win over unseeded Veronika Kudermetova of Russia and Demi Schuurs of the Netherlands.
The eighth seeds saved seven of 11 break points and also converted seven of 11 to advance to a clash with Belinda Bencic of Switzerland and Daria Kasatkina of Russia, who edged Shuko Aoyama of Japan and Lidziya Marozava of Belarus 6-3, 3-6, 15-13.
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