Number 6 seeds Nicole Melichar-Martinez and Ellen Perez beat number 1 seeds Lyudmila Kichenok and Jelena Ostapenko 6-1 6-3 to keep their hopes of reaching the semifinals at the WTA Finals in Riyadh.
Kichenok and Ostapenko dropped serve following two volley errors from Kichenok and consecutive double faults from Ostapenko. Melichar-Martinez and Perez earned a double break in the fourth game and rallied from 0-40 down to hold serve for 5-0 and served out the first set at 15. Melichar-Martinez and Perez broke twice in the third and ninth games to win the second set 6-3 on their first match point.
Melichar Martinez and Perez finish the round-robin stage with a 2-1 record. They will require number 8 seeds Katerina Siniakova and Taylor Townsend to beat Hsieh-su-Wei and Elise Mertens in the final Green Group match on Wednesday evening. Should Siniakova and Townsend win this mathc, they will finish first in this group. A win for Hsieh and Mertens would secure them the top spot, while Siniakova and Townsend would finish second. Kichenok and Townsend finish with a 0-3 record in their second appearance at the WTA Finals.
Kichenok and Ostapenko finished with 34 unforced errors to 13 winners, while Melichar-Martinez and Perez produced 8 winners and 12 unforced errors.
Melichar-Martinez and Perez have drawn to 2-2 in their head-to-head matches against Kichenok and Ostapenko.
“Our first couple of matches, the first one was topsy-turvy. Today we really focused, and if it’s our last match here, at least we end on a high”, said Melichar.
