TENNIS/Hsieh, Mertens advance to women's doubles semifinals at Indian Wells

Taipei, March 14 (CNA) Hsieh Su-wei (謝淑薇) and partner Elise Mertens dispatched Demi Schuurs and Luisa Stefani 6-1, 6-4 in Indian Wells Wednesday to advance to the women's doubles semifinals at the BNP Paribas Open.

The Taiwanese-Belgian duo will face America's Nicole Melichar-Martinez and Australia's Ellen Perez on Thursday (Pacific Daylight Time) for a spot in the final of the WTA 1000 tournament.

Despite losing to Schuurs and Stefani in the quarterfinal at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open in February, Hsieh and Martens made a blistering start to Wednesday's rematch in California.

Hsieh and Martens won three games without reply at the start of the first set, breaking their Dutch-Brazilian opponents' serve several times to clinch the opener 6-1.

In the second set, Hsieh and Mertens finally broke their opponents' serve at 4-4 before seeing out the set 6-4.

Hsieh and Mertens have won two women's doubles titles at Grand Slam tournaments together, including this year's Australian Open and Wimbledon in 2021.

Hsieh also won the mixed doubles title at this year's Australian Open with Polish Jan Zielinski to become Melbourne's first double-doubles champion since Rennae Stubbs in 2000.