Top seeds Hsieh su-Wei and Elise Mertens beat this year’s San Diego champions Nicole Melichar-Martinez and Ellen Perez 6-2 7-6 (7-5) to reach the doubles final at the BPN Paribas Open in Indian Wells.
Hsieh su-Wei and Mertens broke twice in the third and fifth games to win the first set 6-2. Both teams went on serve with no break points en route to the tie-break. Hsieh-su Wei and Mertens earned three match points at 6-3 with two mini-breaks. Melichar-Martinez and Perez saved two match points, but Hsieh-su Wei and Mertens sealed the win with their third mini-break.
Hsieh su-Wei and Mertens set up a final match against Storm Hunter and Katerina Siniakova, who beat Asia Muhammad and Ena Shibahara 6-3 6-4 to advance to their second straight WTA 1000 final.
Hunter and Siniakova earned two breaks in the first and third games to open up a 3-0 lead. Muhammad and Shibahara pulled back both breaks to draw level to 3-3. Hunter and Siniakova earned their third break in the ninth game to win the first set 6-3. Both players traded breaks in the first two games of the second set. Hunter and Siniakova earned their second break in the seventh game and sealed the win on their second match point.
All four players in Saturday’s final are current or former doubles number 1 players. They won 83 doubles titles between them. Mertens, Hsieh and Hunter are currently ranked number 1, 2 and 3 respectively.
Hsieh and Mertens won the Australian Open doubles title last January after beating Hunter and Siniakova 7-5 1-6 6-3 in the quarter finals.
Hunter and Siniakova are chasing their second title of the season after claiming their first team title at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships last month.
