Hsieh, Zhang advance to women's doubles semifinals at Indian Wells

Taipei, March 12 (CNA) Taiwanese tennis player Hsieh Su-wei (謝淑薇) and her doubles partner Zhang Shuai (張帥) of China defeated their opponents 7-5, 6-4 Wednesday to advance to the semifinals at the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells.

The fifth-seeded Taiwanese-Chinese pair came out weak against fourth-seeds Ellen Perez of Australia and Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia, trailing behind 3-5 to the point where the match hit a set point in favor of Perez and Ostapenko.

Just as it seemed they were about to lose the set, Hsieh and Zhang found their footing to make a comeback and take the win 7-5.

Hsieh and Zhang kept up their strong play in the second set, besting their opponents 6-4 to come out victorious from the match that lasted an hour and 23 minutes.

At the start of the season, Hsieh had partnered with Ostapenko for the Australian Open and the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, but they fell short and had to settle for second place in the finals of both competitions.

Hsieh and Zhang will next face British tennis player Olivia Nicholls and Slovak Tereza Mihalíková in the semifinals at Indian Wells.

The BNP Paribas Open is part of the ATP Masters 1000 events on the ATP Tour and also part of the WTA 1000 events on the WTA Tour.

The annual professional tennis tournament is being held March 5-16 in Indian Wells, California.