Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and her doubles partner Barbora Strycova of the Czech Republic defended their title at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships on Saturday, taking their second trophy of the season.
The top-seeded duo overcame Zheng Saisai of China and Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic 7-5, 3-6, 10-5 in a nearly two-hour match.
Hsieh and Strycova took an early 3-1 lead in the opening set, and although their opponents came from behind to tie 5-5, the duo kept their cool to take the next two games and win 7-5.
Photo: AFP
In the second set, the duo also took a 3-1 lead, but then gave up five games in a row to lose 3-6.
Zheng and Krejcikova kept up their momentum in the third-set tiebreaker, at one point leading Hsieh and Strycova 3-0, but the Taiwanese-Czech duo rallied to take eight points and eventually won 10-5.
This is the second year that Hsieh and Strycova have triumphed at the Dubai Open, and the third consecutive year that Hsieh has made it to the tournament’s women’s doubles final. In 2018, Hsieh and her then-partner, Peng Shuai of China, finished runners-up.
The Dubai Championships mark the duo’s second win of the season, following the Brisbane International tennis tournament last month.
In the singles, Simona Halep defeated Elena Rybakina 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (7/5) to secure her 20th career title.
The world No. 2 from Romania, who also won the title in Dubai in 2015, clinched her first trophy since Wimbledon last summer.
“I love playing here, I gave everything I had. Now, actually, I’m pretty dead,” said Halep, who had been 1-3 down in the final set and took victory after coming back from a set down for the third successive match in Dubai.
Rybakina, 20, who will rise to 17 from 19 in the new rankings next week, was playing her fourth final from five tournaments this year, having won the Hobart trophy last month on the eve of the Australian Open.
“She’s a talented player,” Halep said of her opponent who has a WTA-leading 19 match wins for the season. “She’s young and has many more years ahead of her.”
Rybakina, who was just inside the top 200 this time last year, took the tight final set into a deciding tiebreaker when she broke Halep as the top seed served for victory.
“I may have been a bit nervous,” Halep said. “I just kept trying to fight for every ball.”
“I’m really proud of this week, I think I gave my best. I enjoy every match I play here,” she added.
Rybakina took the early initiative, gaining a 4-2 lead, but struggled to close out the opening set.
The Kazakh had to save two break points as she served for the set leading 5-3.
The 20-year-old double-faulted on a first set point before finally claiming the set on her third opportunity after 38 minutes, saving a pair of break points.
Halep struck back in the second, breaking for 3-1, but Rybakina answered in the seventh game with a break back before losing serve again to trail 3-5 after salvaging three break points.
Halep squared the match at a set each from Rybakina’s backhand error a game later.
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