Taiwanese Hsieh Su-wei (???) and her partner Elise Mertens of Belgium booked their place in the women's doubles semifinals of the Akron WTA Finals Guadalajara after ousting Canadian Sharon Fichman and Mexican Giuliana Olmos on Tuesday.
Hsieh and Mertens, this year's Wimbledon and Indian Wells champions and third seeds at the WTA Finals tournament, which is being held in Mexico, won the match in straight sets 6-4, 7-6(3) in an hour and 36 minutes.
Women's doubles world no. 1, Hsieh celebrated the victory by posting a photo on her Facebook fan page of her bumping fists with Mertens and the text "See you at semifinal."
The Taiwanese-Belgian pair will face the second-seeded Japanese duo of Shuko Aoyama and Ena Shibahara in the semifinals on Wednesday. The two teams last met in the semifinals at Indian Wells in October in a match won by Hsieh and Mertens in two sets.
The two pairs also met in the semifinals at Wimbledon in July when the Taiwan-Belgium duo won a hard-fought three-set match.
Hsieh and Mertens opened play in the El Tajín group on Day 2 by saving set points in the opening frame to bounce back and defeat sixth seeds Alexa Guarachi of Chile and Desirae Krawczyk of the United States 7-6(3), 6-2, before falling to first seeds Czechs Barbora Krejcikova and Katerina Siniakova 3-6, 1-6 on Day 4.
Hsieh, who is making her fourth appearance at the WTA's showcase tournament, will be hoping for a repeat of her 2013 tournament victory with partner Peng Shuai (??) of China.
The pair followed up the win with another final appearance in the 2014 tournament, where their title defense was ended by a 1-6, 0-6 loss to Cara Black and Sania Mirza.
Hsieh's appearance in the 2019 tournament resulted in a third run to the final with partner Barbora Strýcová, before losing 6-1, 6-3 to Tímea Babos and Kristina Mladenovic.
The 2021 WTA Finals features the eight best singles players and eight best doubles pairs on the Porsche Race to the WTA Finals leaderboard, which covers 51 WTA tournaments and four Grand Slams over the season.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel