Taiwanese tennis veteran Hsieh Su-wei and her Latvian partner Jelena Ostapenko came up just short in the women’s doubles final at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships on Saturday, falling 6-7(5), 4-6 to top-seeded Katerina Siniakova and Taylor Townsend.
The loss marked Hsieh’s second runner-up finish of the season against the Czech-US duo, following their intense showdown in last month’s Australian Open final.
Hsieh and Ostapenko had a strong start in Saturday’s match, leading 6-5 in the opening set and holding three set points. However, they were unable to convert their chances, allowing their opponents to force a tiebreak, which they lost 5-7.
Photo: Reuters
Despite showing resilience in the second set and narrowing a 2-5 deficit to 4-5, Hsieh and Ostapenko were unable to break their opponents’ serve again, conceding the championship in straight sets.
Russian teenager Mirra Andreeva beat Clara Tauson 7-6 (1), 6-1 to earn the biggest title of her career.
The victory would earn Andreeva her debut in the top 10 of the rankings next week — the first 17-year-old to achieve that since Nicole Vaidisova in 2007.
It caps quite a week for Andreeva, who also had wins over 2023 Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova, five-time major champion Iga Swiatek and 2022 Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina to become the youngest player to defeat three major champions at a single event since Maria Sharapova at the 2004 WTA Finals. She also became the youngest player to reach the final of a WTA 1000 event.
Andreeva’s only other title was the Iasi Open in Romania last year.
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