Top doubles seeds Jasmine Paolini & Sara Errani started their WTA Finals campaign with a 6-3 6-3 victory over America’s Asia Muhammad & Demi Schuurs of the Netherlands in Riyadh on Saturday afternoon.
It was a very tough match… the ball is flying, it’s not easy to make lobs. We have to change the way we play a little bit; we have to be more aggressive. In other places we might both stay on the baseline. Here, perhaps, more serve and volley, go to the net much more, the points are very short. We have to be more aggressive, and we did that. Sara Errani
The Italian Olympic champions needed just 77 minutes to take the lead in the Martina Navratilova Group, with their eyes firmly on winning their first WTA Finals title after failing to exit the round-robin stage in Riyadh last year.
Errani & Paolini saved 3 break points on Paolini’s serve in the 5th game, winning 3 consecutive games 2–2, including a break in the 6th, to take a 5–2 lead, before serving out the opening set on their 3rd set point.
They then earned an early break to open a 2-0 lead at the start of the second, but Muhammad & Schuurs came back to win 3 games on the trot to take a 3-2 lead, before Errani & Paolini played 4 games to close out the match.
“It was a very tough match… the ball is flying, it’s not easy to make lobs,” Errani said in their post-match interview, adding that they had to take a more proactive approach to cope with the conditions at the King Saud University Indoor Arena. “We have to change the way we play a little bit; we have to be more aggressive.
“In other places we might both stick to the baseline. Here maybe more serve and volley, a lot more going to the net, the points are very short. We have to be more aggressive, and we did that.”
The victory broke a head-to-head tie between the two teams this season, with Muhammad & Schuurs beating the Italians at the BNP Paribas Open in March, but Errani & Paolini winning in straight sets in the quarter-finals of the US Open.
Errani & Paolini won their first round-robin match in Riyadh last year, but finished 1-2 in the group stage and failed to reach the semi-finals.
An undefeated record this year will not only earn them their first year-end crown, but also potentially the year-end No. 1 ranking.
To earn that spot, they will have to have the lead, and the incumbent duo of American Taylor Townsend and Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic will have to win fewer than two games in the group stage.
(LR) Veronika Kudermetova & Elise Mertens let the lead slip and fell to Su-Wei Hsieh & Jelena Ostapenko in the group stage at the King Saud University Indoor Arena on Saturday evening
© Matthew Stockman/Getty Images for WTA
In the second doubles match on day 1, Su Wei Hsieh & Jelena Ostapenko from Latvia defeated Russia’s Veronika Kudemertova & Elise Mertens from Belgium 1-6 7-5 [10-5]who came from behind to avenge their Wimbledon loss for the pair.
Kudemerova & Mertens earned 2 breaks in the 4th and 6th games to win the first set in just 22 minutes, and the second started with 5 consecutive breaks as the pair went up a set and a break in the opening game.
Hsieh & Ostapenko were twice behind with a break and managed to get back on track both times to level at 2-2.
When Kudemertova & Mertens earned their third break in the fifth game, then held serve to love to consolidate the break for a 4-2 lead, it looked like they might finish the match, but Hsieh & Ostapenko played three straight games to take a 5-4 lead.
Hsieh earned the final break with a winner to seal the set, forcing the match into a tiebreak.
4-2 will be a score that both pairs will remember, as that was the score that put Kudemertova & Mertens in the lead in the second set, and also in the matchbreaker.
It proved futile, however, as sixth-seeded Hsieh & Ostapenko rallied to claim both leads and secure their first group win in an hour and 36 minutes to open their 2025 WTA Finals campaign.
“My thoughts after the first set were: ‘We lost 6-1, but it’s still good. We made it to the WTA Finals, we made it to two Slam finals, so it’s okay. We’re probably going to lose this match, but we’ll do our best and we’ll fight,'” Ostapenko said after the match. “And then step by step we played better and better, every point. We went from not playing our best tennis to almost playing our best tennis in the last few points.”
The Australian Open and Wimbledon finalists had simply refused to fold.
When asked after the match what it would mean to win her second Martina Navratilova trophy after capturing the 2013 WTA Finals title in Singapore, Hsieh still had enough energy left to make a joke.
“Next time, don’t say the year, because people know I’m getting very old,” she said. “But it’s always nice to be back, having won the trophy before, and I hope I can leave with another one.”
Whether they succeed remains to be seen, but Hsieh & Ostapenko are off to the best possible start, joining Errani & Paolini at 1-0 in the Martina Navratilova Group.
At the very least, they want to avoid a repeat of last year, when both players were eliminated in the round-robin stage, Ostapenko teaming up with Lyudmyla Kichenok and Hsieh teaming up with Mertens.
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