Taipei: Taiwan's Chan Hao-ching and Russia's Veronika Kudermetova were unable to secure a spot in the women's doubles final at the WTA Finals in Saudi Arabia on Friday. Despite a spirited comeback in the second set, they were defeated by Wimbledon champions Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic and Taylor Townsend of the United States with a score of 6-0, 7-6 (5). According to Focus Taiwan, Siniakova and Townsend appeared to be cruising towards the finals after taking a commanding lead of 6-0, 4-2. However, Chan and Kudermetova showed resilience by winning the next three games. Chan even had the opportunity to serve out the set at 5-4, which could have forced a super tiebreaker. Unfortunately, Siniakova and Townsend broke Chan's serve and subsequently won the next game, bringing the score to 6-5. They had two match points on Kudermetova's serve that the Taiwan-Russia duo managed to save. In the ensuing tiebreaker, the Wimbledon champions, seeded eighth at the WTA Finals, quickly gained a 6-1 lead. Chan a nd Kudermetova, the seventh seeds, fought back by saving four match points, narrowing the gap to 6-5 before Siniakova sealed the victory with a decisive crosscourt passing shot. Townsend remarked after the 90-minute match, "When you win a 6-0 set, it's never easy. We were playing so well and sometimes it's easy to have expectations to continue that, but your opponents adjust and we saw how that ended up." Despite the loss, this match marked Chan's best performance at the WTA Finals since reaching the semifinals in 2015 with her sister Latisha Chan. She also participated in the tournament in 2016 and 2019. This year's WTA Finals, hosted in Riyadh, gathered the top eight singles players and doubles teams globally to compete for the year-end championship. Among the competitors was Taiwan's Hsieh Su-wei, who partnered with Elise Mertens of Belgium. They were eliminated in the qualifying round with a 1-2 record in their three Group Green matches.
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