Taipei, June 11 (CNA) Taiwanese tennis player Hsieh Su-wei (謝淑薇) and her Chinese doubles partner Wang Xinyu (王欣瑜) upset the odds to defeat the 10th seeded pairing of Canada's Leylah Fernandez and the United States' Taylor Townsend 1-6, 7-6 (5), 6-1 to win the French Open's women's doubles title Sunday.
This is the second Roland-Garros title for 37-year-old Hsieh, whose first title at the tournament was in 2014, when she paired with Peng Shuai (彭帥) from China.
Hsieh was sidelined from professional tennis for about 18 months after being injured competing in the women's singles at the Courmayeur tournament in Italy in October, 2021. She only made her 2023 debut in the women's doubles at the Madrid Open on April 29, with Barbora Strycova from the Czech Republic, reaching the quarter final stage.
Hsieh has reached six Grand Slam women's doubles finals in her career, winning five times. She won the Wimbledon title in 2013, 2019 and 2021, pairing with Peng Shuai, Barbora Strycova and Elise Mertens respectively.
After winning her fifth women's doubles grand slam title Hsieh told rolandgarros.com. that "I'm the person who likes to enjoy, so I have not been feeling so much pressure, this whole tournament I was quite relaxed."
She also thanked 21-year-old Wang for all her hard work enabling her to relax more.
"I know anything can happen so I just try to enjoy and push my partner to do everything on the court," she joked. "You know when you play with a younger player, the good thing is that you can tell them: RUN," Hsieh told rolandgarros.com.
Hsieh thanked everyone for their support and said it had been a difficult event, adding that the duo had been lucky to win not being favorites, and that she was particularly moved to win at Roland Garros nine years since her last victory at the tournament, particularly after being injured and not knowing if she would ever play again.
