Ostapenko and Hsieh beat Mertens and Zhang to stay in WTA Finals semi-final race

Jeļena Ostapenko and Hsieh Su-wei won their first match at the WTA Finals doubles, beating Elise Mertens of Belgium and Zhang Shuai of China 7-5, 6-3 in California. The match was played on Wednesday local time, overnight into Thursday in Latvia.

How it happened

The match started badly, with Ostapenko and Hsieh trailing 3-1 in the first set. Both pairs then dropped serve several times until Hsieh held comfortably at 5-5, and Ostapenko and Hsieh closed out the set 7-5 in the next game. They opened the second set with a break to lead 2-0, and at 3-2 a double fault by Mertens handed them another break. Hsieh won the final point at the net.

Their opponents served seven double faults in the match, Ostapenko and Hsieh one, according to the match statistics.

What they need for the semi-finals

After two rounds the group is led by Gabriela Dabrowski of Canada and Luisa Stefani of Brazil, who have won both their matches. Ostapenko and Hsieh, and Guo Hanyu and Kristina Mladenovic, have one win and one defeat each, while Mertens and Zhang have lost both matches.

• Final group round: Ostapenko/Hsieh v Dabrowski/Stefani.
• The top two pairs from each group reach the semi-finals; if pairs finish level on wins, further criteria decide the places.
• The final is on Sunday, 15 November.

Last year Ostapenko and Hsieh reached the semi-finals of this event. This year they arrived in Indian Wells as an established pair, and a win over the group favourites would give them a good chance of matching that result.