TENNIS/Taiwan's Hsieh Su-wei reaches Australian Open women's doubles final

Taipei, Jan. 25 (CNA) Taiwanese tennis star Hsieh Su-wei (謝淑薇) reached the Australian Open women's doubles final Thursday with Belgian partner Elise Mertens.

The second-seeded pair battled past third-seeded Australian Storm Hunter and Czech Katerina Siniakova in a tough three-set match, eventually winning 7-5, 1-6, 6-3.

Facing current world No. 1 in doubles Hunter and seven-time Grand Slam doubles champion Siniakova, Hsieh and Mertens had a difficult start, losing two service games in row to fall behind 0-4, but later found their rhythm to tie the set at 4-4, and after breaking their opponents' serve in the 11th game, went on to win the first set 7-5.

In the second set, the duo trailed 0-3, but this time Hunter and Siniakova proved too strong, running away with the set 1-6.

In the deciding set, Hsieh and Mertens managed to refocus and took a decisive 5-3 lead after breaking their opponents' serve in the eighth game, winning one more game to claim their place in the final, after just over two and a half hours on court.

This is the first time Hsieh has reached an Australian Open final since 2020, when she was runner-up in the women's doubles event, with Barbora Strycova of the Czech Republic.

Hsieh and Mertens next play on Sunday against either fourth-seeded Canadian Gabriela Dabrowski and New Zealander Erin Routliffe or 11th-seeded Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia and Ukrainian Lyudmyla Kichenok.

Meanwhile earlier on Wednesday, Hsieh reached the mixed doubles final with Jan Zielinski of Poland. They face American Desirae Krawczyk and Neal Skupski of the United Kingdom in the final on Friday.