London, July 11 (IANS): No.3 seeds Elise Mertens of Belgium and Hsieh Su-wei of Chinese Taipei saved two match points to defeat the unheralded Russian pair of Veronika Kudermetova and Elena Vesnina 3-6, 7-5, 9-7 in a thrilling doubles final here at Wimbledon.
From 3-6, 3-5 down, the No.3 seeds came all the way back, giving Hsieh her third title at the All-England Club and Mertens a third Grand Slam title overall on Saturday evening.
“It was such a tough match. They had match points, I think a couple, so we just kept going. We said to each other, ‘Just keep going,'” Elise told wtatennis.com.
“We never gave up. That’s the fighting spirit we had today that maybe made with the difference. Of course, there were nerves, but still we managed it well at the end. She’s defending champion, champion again. It’s unbelievable.”
The Belgian previously won the Australian Open in February with Belarus’ Aryna Sabalenka and now has just a French Open title missing from her set, while Hsieh won Wimbledon in 2013 with China’s Peng Shuai and 2019 with Czech Republic’s Barbora Strycova.
On winning the title with a third different partner, Hsieh added, “It’s always not easy to play in the final, and the opponents will fight super hard. We all know it’s the last match so we will fight until the last point definitely.
“All the partners, they are amazing to help because sometime I get on the court at the beginning, and I (do) not start very well. Really good job to help, so it helps a lot.”
“It was definitely disappointing that we had some matches that we didn’t finish, couldn’t finish some chances,” Elise said. “But I think the best thing to do is to learn from it. If you keeping negative about it, you’re not going to go any further, you’re not going to go forward, not going to grow as a team.
The victory also assures Elise of a return to the doubles world No.1 ranking. She first held the top spot for one week this May, and secured her return just by reaching the final.
