On Sunday, Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-Wei and Belgium’s Elise Mertens achieved a remarkable feat by winning the women’s doubles title at the Australian Open.
The duo convincingly won the match with a scoreline of 6-1, 7-5 against the Latvian-Ukrainian duo Jelena Ostapenko and Lyudmyla Kichenok.
The victory marked Hsieh’s second women’s Grand Slam doubles title after winning at Wimbledon in 2021.
Additionally, it made Hsieh the second-oldest woman to have ever won a Grand Slam doubles title, with Lisa Raymond being the only one ahead of her.
Despite losing in the first round of qualifying at Melbourne Park this year, the 38-year-old Hsieh continued her successful run and claimed her second title Down Under by winning the mixed doubles final on Friday.
With this win, Hsieh secured her seventh major women’s doubles crown, adding to the four she had already won at Wimbledon and two at Roland Garros.
Moreover, the victory elevated Mertens to four Grand Slam women’s doubles titles.
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Hsieh and Mertens got off to a strong start and broke in the third game to gain an early advantage in the match.
They continued their impressive form and closed out the opening set with ease.
The second set was much more competitive, with Ostapenko and Kichenok seizing the initiative with an early service break.
However, Hsieh and Mertens fought back and broke their opponents twice to level the score at 2-2 and gain a 5-3 lead.
Despite failing to close out the match and allowing Ostapenko and Kichenok to level at 5-5, Hsieh and Mertens were determined to win.
They broke their opponents for a third time in the set and secured victory on their first championship point.
After the match, Mertens praised their opponents for playing a great match and thanked everyone for coming out to support them.
