TENNIS/Taiwan's Hsieh wins women's tennis doubles in Birmingham, Chan takes 2nd in Berlin

Taipei, June 24 (CNA) Taiwan's Hsieh Su-wei (謝淑薇) and Chan Hao-ching (詹皓晴) on Sunday took part in different Women's Tennis Association (WTA) doubles finals in Europe, with the former winning in Birmingham while the latter taking second in Berlin.

At the 250-level Birmingham Classic in England, which took place from June 15-23, Hsieh and her partner Elise Mertens of Belgium entered the competition as the top-seeded pair and played like they meant business.

In the semifinals, the duo beat the pairing of Asia Muhammad and Indonesia's Aldila Sutjiadi 6-1, 6-2.

They then faced off against the Chinese-Japanese partnership of Zhang Shuai (張帥) and Miyu Katoin in the final, defeating them 6-1, 6-3 to win the title.

The victory not only marked Hsieh's third win at the Birmingham Classic, having won in 2012 and 2019, but also served as a warm up for the 2024 Wimbledon Championships in July.

Meanwhile, Chan and her partner Veronika Kudermetova from Russia lost in the final at the WTA's 500-level German Open in Berlin held from June 15-23.

They successfully took down Nicole Melichar-Martinez from the U.S. and Ellen Perez from Australia in the quarterfinals, as well as Czech pair Kateřina Siniaková and Linda Nosková in the semifinals.

However, Chan and Kudermetova were no match for China's Wang Xinyu (王欣瑜) and Zheng Saisai (鄭賽賽) in the finals, losing in straight sets 6-2, 7-5 to take second place.