Number 2 seeds Hsieh-su Wei and Elise Mertens beat 11th seeds Lyudmila Kichenok and Jelena Ostapenko 6-1 7-5 to win the women’s doubles title at the Australian Open on Road Laver Arena in Melbourne.
Hsieh-su Wei broke three times to win the first set 6-1. Kichenok and Ostapenko saved nine game points against them in the first two games of the second set and earned their first break in the first game of the second set to open up a 2-0 lead. Mertens and Hsieh-su-Wei reeled off five of the next six games to take a 5-3 lead.
Mertens was not able to serve out the match at 5-3. Kichenok and Ostapenko pulled the break back in the ninth game to draw level and held their serve to 15 to draw level to 5-5. Hsieh held serve to 15 in the 11th game to take a 6-5 lead. Hsieh and Mertens earned three championships points on Kichenok’s serve and broke serve at love in the 12th game after Ostapenko netted a volley.
Hsieh claimed her seventh women’s doubles title, but her first at the Australian Open. The player from Chinese player has won four Wimbledon titles and two Roland Garros titles including both of those tournaments last year, with different partners (Wang Xinyu at Roland Garros and Barbora Strycova at Wimbledon). She has now won her first hard-court Grand Slam title. She has become the second oldest woman to win a Grand Slam women’s doubles titles. US player Lisa Raymond was eight days older than Hsieh when she won the 2011 US Open.
Hsieh-su Wei won the mixed doubles Grand Slam title of her career alongside her partner Jan Zielinski.
“For me, the most important thing is having some fun. Sometimes you can laugh, even if you are losing 0-5 on the court, is not a big deal, it’s always teamwork. We have so much fun, honestly”, said Hsieh-su Wei.
Mertens has lifted her fourth women’s Grand Slam title in the women’s doubles and her first since she won with Hsieh at Wimbledon in 2021. The Belgian player won her second Australian Open doubles title three years after her previous triumph alongside 2023 and 2024 Australian Open singles champion Aryna Sabalenka.
Mertens will return to WTA Doubles world number 1 after the Australian Open. “We have so much fun. Off court, It’s very fun to play with Su-wei”, said Mertens.
