Hsieh, Wang pair beats Taylor-Fernandez to win French Open women's doubles crown

Paris [France], June 12 : Hsieh Su-Wei and Wang Xinyu on Sunday defeated Taylor Townsend and Leylah Fernandez 1-6, 7-6(5), 6-1 to clinch the women's doubles title at French Open 2023.

Hsieh and Wang won their first doubles championship of the season in just their second tournament after joining forces in Strasbourg, capping off an incredible fortnight in which they defeated five top-seeded couples.

Townsend and Fernandez dominated the first set with their aggressive play, but early in the second set they found themselves down a break. At 5-3, Hsieh and Wang held triple set point on Townsend's serve and continued to hold a lead. Townsend and Fernandez battled back from an 0-40 deficit to hold and then break Wang in the following game to tie the set at 5-5.

Hsieh and Wang, though, overcame a mini-break behind to defeat Fernandez and Townsend 7-5 in the tiebreak. This momentum carried over into the third set for the eventual winners. They quickly defeated Fernandez to take a 3-0 lead.

At 3-1 in the crucial game, Wang was serving. Wang recovered from a 15-40 deficit to preserve four break points and held in the match's longest game, which lasted 18 points. To make it 5-1, Hsieh and Wang broke Fernandez once again. One game later, Hsieh sealed the victory.

"It's very special because I was not expecting to play and don't know who I play with, because at this time of the clay court season, it's middle of the year or something like this. It's hard to find a partner. I just talking with Saisai [Zheng] and then I got a partner like this (snapping fingers) and then we were trying to fix again and play together and have fun," Hsieh was quoted as saying by WTA.

"Sometimes you lose the first set, but the second set, if you stay there, it's all the opportunities and then they will come. You just need to keep trying. It kept trying, we do some cool shots, and then we cheered each other. For me, I just keep trying, and stay calm, I was very peaceful. I was telling her, It's okay. The worst thing is we just take the trophy with a plate," Hsieh said.