TENNIS/Hsieh Su-wei 1st Taiwanese to win 2 Australian Open titles in same year

Taipei, Jan. 28 (CNA) Taiwanese tennis ace Hsieh Su-wei (謝淑薇) made history Sunday, becoming the first Taiwanese to win two titles at the same Grand Slam event after she teamed up with Elise Mertens of Belgium to take the Australian Open women's doubles title on Sunday.

Hsieh and Mertens, the second seeds in the women's doubles, dispatched 11th seeds Lyudmyla Kichenok of Ukraine and Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia 6-1, 7-5 in 1 hour and 33 minutes.

The victory Sunday capped a successful fortnight for Hsieh, who also won the Australian Open mixed doubles title on Friday with Jan Zielinski of Poland after overcoming a match point.

"I would like to thank the sponsors," Hsieh said during her victory speech on Sunday, "and of course the Victoria government for this wonderful tournament and for us to be here."

"First of all, congrats girls for a great tournament," Mertens said to her partner and opponents during her victory speech.

"It was a really tough final; second set was really close. I mean it was a really great match for us too, you know. We really had to stay focused all the time."

The second seeds sped through the first set Sunday in 27 minutes, and after falling behind 2-0 in the second set, they won five of the next six games to put Mertens in position to serve for the match up 5-3.

The 11th seeds pulled back with a break and a hold of their own serve, but Hsieh and Mertens broke Kichenok's serve at love in the 12th game to clinch the match.

With the win, Hsieh became the first player to have won the Australian Open women's and mixed doubles titles in the same year since 2000, when Rennae Stubbs of Australia accomplished the feat.

Sunday's win also meant that the 38-year-old Hsieh became the second-oldest woman to win a Grand Slam women's doubles title, according to the Women's Tennis Association website.

American Lisa Raymond was eight days older than Hsieh when she won the 2011 US Open.

Beyond these milestones, the Australian Open women's doubles title was Hsieh's seventh in her career, but her first in Australia.

She has also captured women's doubles trophies at Wimbledon four times and the French Open twice, doing so with several different partners.

Hsieh teamed up with China's Peng Shuai (彭帥) to win her first two women's doubles Grand Slam titles at Wimbledon in 2013 and the French Open in 2014.

Another of Hsieh's partners from China was Wang Xinyu (王欣瑜), and together the duo won the French Open women's doubles title in 2023.

Hsieh also had a fruitful partnership with Barbora Strýcová from the Czech Republic, who is now retired. The duo won Wimbledon in 2019 and 2023.

She even teamed up with Mertens to take the Wimbledon title in 2021.