Oin Rilympic champions Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini started their campaign in the WTA Finals doubles tournament at the King Saud University Indoor Arena in Riyadh with a 6-3 6-3 win over Asia Muhammad and Demi Schhurs in 1 hour and 17 minutes.
Paolini and Errani are aiming to win their first WTA Finals title one year after they did not advance to the semifinal in last year’s edition.
The Italian team saved three break points on Paolini’s serve in the fifth game and won three consecutive games from 2-2 including a break in the sixth game to take a 5-2 lead and served out the opening set 6-3 on their third set point.
Errani and Paolini earned an early break to open up a 2-0 lead at the start of the second set. Muhammad and Schuurs came back by winning three consecutive games to take a 3-2 lead, but Errani and Paolini reeled off four games to close out the second set 6-3.
“It was a very tough match. he ball is flying, it’s not easy to do lobs”, said Errani in the post-match interview.
Su Wei Hsieh and Jelena Ostapenko beat Veronika Kudemertova and Elise Mertens 1-6 7-5 10-5. Kudemerova and Mertens earned two breaks in the fourth and sixth games to win the first set 6-1 in 22 minutes.
The second set started with five consecutive breaks. Kudemertova and Mertens went up a set and a break in the first game. Hsieh and Ostapenko trailed by a break twice by a break, but they broke back both times
to draw level to 2-2. Kudemertova and Mertens earned their third break in the fifth game and held serve at love to consolidate the break for 4-2 lead. Su Weii Hsieh and Ostapenko reeled off three consecutive games to take a 5-4 lead. Hsieh earned a final break with a winner esto seal the second set 7-5 forcing the match to the Match tie-break.
Kudemertova and Mertens went up 4-2 in the Match Tie-Break, but Hsieh and Ostapenko reeled off seven consecutive points and eight of the last nine to seal the Match tie-beak
Jelena Ostapenko: “My thoughts after the first set were like ‘We lost 6-1, but it’s still good. We made it to the WTA Finals, we made two Slam finals, so it’s okay. We’re probably going to lose this match, but we’ll try our best and we’ll fight. And then, step-by-step, we were playing better and better every point. We went from not playing our best tennis to almost our best tennis in the last few points.”
