Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Latvian partner Jelena Ostapenko on Saturday narrowly missed out on a second title in two months in a hard-fought women’s doubles final at the Qatar Open, while Czech Karolina Muchova captured her first WTA 1000 crown in women’s singles.
Third seeds Hsieh and Ostapenko blanked Kazakh Anna Danilina and Serbian partner Aleksandra Krunic 6-0 in the opening set, before barely giving up the second two sets 7-6 (7/3) and 10-8 in 1 hour and 34 minutes on hard court.
The Taiwanese-Latvian duo last month won the Brisbane International, their first title as a pair, although they had both previously won it with different partners.
Photo: AFP
Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Denmark’s Clara Tauson crashed out of the quarter-finals with a 6-1, 6-3 loss to fifth seeds Gabriela Dabrowski of Canada and Luisa Stefani of Brazil.
Taiwan’s other doubles star, Wu Fang-hsien, and Japanese partner Eri Hozumi lost in the opening round 6-3, 6-2 to Slovak Tereza Mihalikova and Briton Olivia Nicholls.
Chan and Tauson yesterday launched their Dubai Tennis Championships campaign with a 7-5, 6-4 victory over Croatia’s Darija Schreiber and Belgium’s Magali Kempen, setting them up for a second-round face-off against third seeds Hsieh and Ostapenko, who advanced on a bye.
Photo: Reuters
Wu and Hozumi are today to play India’s Rutuja Bhosale and Thailand’s Peangtarn Plipuech.
Muchova on Saturday won the women’s singles, her first title since 2019, with a 6-4, 7-5 victory over Canadian teen sensation Victoria Mboko.
After battling back from a set and a break down in the semi-finals against Maria Sakkari the previous night, Muchova, 29, was in fierce form against Mboko to clinch the biggest title of her career.
“It’s been a while since I won a tournament, so it’s nice to get that feeling again, to be reminded of that victory feeling again,” she said during the trophy ceremony. “I’d like to congratulate Victoria, you’re still a teenager, but you play with so much maturity. I’m sure you have many titles ahead of you.”
A former French Open finalist, Muchova’s career has been hampered by injuries, but she has started this year in fine fashion, amassing a 12-2 win-loss record over the past six weeks.
Her title run in Doha would lift her from 19 to 11 in the world rankings, while Mboko guaranteed herself a top-10 debut today by making the final.
Muchova put together a clean opening set, landing an impressive 75 percent of her first serves, and dropping just three points behind that first delivery.
The Czech faced zero break points across the 43-minute set and showcased her prowess at the net to take a solid step towards the title.
Mboko made adjustments on return in the second set, and managed to decode her opponent’s serve to carve a 4-2 gap, but her advantage was short-lived as Muchova broke twice and wrapped up the contest in 94 minutes.
The 19-year-old Mboko has the most match wins on the women’s tour this season with 13 to just three defeats. She would rise to No. 10 in the world today.
“It’s not the outcome I wanted, but I think there’s many positives to take away,” said Mboko, who was competing in her fourth WTA final, and second at the 1000 level.
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