Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens of Belgium on Sunday claimed the Rothesay Classic doubles title in Birmingham, England, while Kazakhstan’s Yulia Putintseva won her first senior grass-court women’s singles title.
Top seeds and reigning Australian Open champions Hsieh and Mertens defeated Zhang Shuai of China and Miyu Kato of Japan 6-1, 6-3 at the Edgbaston Priory Club in 59 minutes.
“I’ve already played two doubles finals here and I lost all of them, so I’m very happy to win this one,” Mertens told the Lawn Tennis Association Web site. “Birmingham is of course very important in the lead up to Wimbledon, and for us to get this title will give us confidence going into it. We’ve enjoyed our week here. We’ve had beautiful weather and a great atmosphere, so I just want to say thank you to the city of Birmingham.”
Photo: AFP
In the women’s singles final, Putintseva defeated Australia’s Ajla Tomljanovic 6-1, 7-6 (10/8).
The 29-year-old’s previous two WTA Tour titles had come on clay courts, in Nurnberg in 2019 and Budapest in 2021, but on Sunday she prevailed in nearly 90 minutes on court after coming from 5-3 down — and saving two set points — in the second set.
The victory saw Putintseva become just the second unseeded Rothesay Classic champion in the past 10 years, following Beatriz Haddad Maia’s title run of 2022.
“I don’t know what I’m feeling because I wasn’t expecting this at all,” Putintseva said. “It’s great and it’s confusing because I’ve always been good on clay, but now all of a sudden, I’m good on grass. I’ll take that. It’s great.”
“It was a great game. I started so well, and then Ajla dialed up her level to the highest. She was playing really amazing, not giving me any time to think or to do something. The game was even in the end, and I was a bit more lucky,” she said.
It was a heartening week for the Australian, formerly No. 32 in the world rankings, after she missed most of last season following knee surgery and then had an operation to remove ovarian cysts.
In London, Tommy Paul added his name to a list of American tennis greats by winning the Queen’s Club men’s singles title after defeating Lorenzo Musetti 6-1, 7-6 (10/8).
Victory gave the fifth-seeded American his third ATP Tour title — and the biggest success of his career — after he won in straight sets after 88 minutes on court.
Paul became the first US player to win the prestigious Wimbledon warm-up tournament since Sam Querrey in 2010 as he joined a group of former American champions at Queen’s, including John McEnroe, Jimmy Connors and Pete Sampras — who all won Wimbledon as well.
“It means everything,” said Paul, who knocked out Britain’s Jack Draper in the quarter-finals. “Going through the hallways here in the locker room and the names on the wall, it’s unbelievable. It was my goal always to put my name next to them.”
The world No. 13 overtakes Taylor Fritz to become the new US No. 1.
Paul raced through the first set before Italian opponent Musetti worked his way back into the match.
The 27-year-old Paul failed to serve out the match at 5-4 up in the second set before coming back from 1-4 down in the tiebreak and saving a set point at 6-7.
Musetti saved two match points behind his own serve before Paul took the third to secure the title.
“This was definitely one of the nicest weeks of my career so far,” Musetti said. “Congratulations to Tommy, he deserved to win. I was struggling to get to his level. I saved face a bit at the end with the break. I was fighting really hard to get to the third set.”
The 22-year-old, who became a father in March, added: “I want to dedicate this week to my little boy Ludovico. I just want to go back and hug him.”
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