Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-Wei and Belgium’s Elise Mertens won the Australian Open women’s doubles title on Sunday, defeating Latvian-Ukrainian duo Jelena Ostapenko and Lyudmyl-a Kichenok 6-1, 7-5. The win gave the second seeds their second women’s Grand Slam doubles trophy, following their success at Wimbledon in 2021, and Hsieh became the second-oldest woman to win a Grand Slam doubles title, trailing only Lisa Raymond.
Hsieh, 38, ended her singles career after falling in the first round of qualification at Melbourne Park this year, but she still won her second title down under by winning the mixed doubles final on Friday. Also read: Australian Open 2024: Jannik Sinner Beats Daniil Medvedev To Claim Maiden Grand Slam
Victory over Ostapenko and Kichenok gave Hsieh her seventh major women’s doubles trophy, adding to the four she won at Wimbledon and two at Roland Garros, and brought Mertens to four Grand Slam women’s doubles victories. Hsieh and Mertens broke in the third game to take an early lead in the match and never looked back, finishing the first set with no hassle.
The second set was considerably more competitive, with Ostapenko and Kichenok taking the lead with an early service break, but Hsieh and Mertens broke back to tie at 2-2 and then again for a 5-3 lead.
“Congratulations girls on a great match,” Mertens added. “The second set was quite close, and we had to fight hard today. “Thank you for coming out.”
The second seeds could not close out the match, enabling Ostapenko and Kichenok to tie at 5-5, but they were not to be denied two games later, breaking for the third time in the set to secure victory and their first championship point.