Taiwans Wu wins Hobart title

TWO IN A WEEK: Despite an undefeated start to the year playing alongside Jiang Xinyu of China, Wu Fang-hsien is to play the Australian Open with a Russian partner

• Staff reporter, with Reuters

Taiwan’s Wu Fang-hsien yesterday triumphed at the Hobart International, winning the women’s doubles title at the US$275,094 outdoor hard-court tournament, while McCartney Kessler lifted the trophy in the women’s singles.

Fourth-ranked Wu and partner Jiang Xinyu of China took 1 hour, 15 minutes to defeat Romania’s Monica Niculescu and Fanny Stollar of Hungary, 6-1, 7-6 (8/6) at the Hobart International Tennis Centre, their second title in a week.

Wu and Jiang on Sunday won the women’s doubles title at the ASB Classic in Auckland, beating Serbia’s Aleksandra Krunic and Sabrina Santamaria of the US.

Their winning ways continued in Australia as they stretched their run of unbeaten matches to start the year to eight.

The Taiwanese-Chinese duo started the match strong, breaking their opponent’s serve three times and winning six games in a row in the first set.

The second set was much closer, with both sides breaking early and a tiebreaker needed to separate them.

Wu and Jiang fell behind 1-3 in the tiebreaker, but stormed back to lead 6-4. Although they missed out on two match points, they won the next two points to claim the WTA250 title.

Wu is changing partners for the Australian Open, which begins today with the men’s and women’s singles.

The Taiwanese is to partner with Anna Blinkova of Russia on Tuesday, when they are to play Clara Tauson of Denmark and the UK’s Jodie Anna Burrage in the first round.

Other Taiwanese scheduled to play on Tuesday in the women’s doubles at the year’s first Grand Slam are: Tsao Chia-yi with partner Veronika Kudermetova of Russia, Chan Hao-ching and partner Lyudmyla Kichenok of Ukraine and Hsieh Su-wei alongside Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko.

Tsao and Kudermetova face Thaland’s Peangtarn Plipuech and American-Japanese Ena Shibahara; Chan and Kichenok are to play Russian Anastasia Potapova and Olga Danilovic of Serbia; and Hsieh and Ostapenko were drawn against Tereza Mihalikova of Slovakia and the UK’s Olivia Nicholls.

Meanwhile, Kessler heads into the Australian Open with a second WTA title under her belt after scoring a 6-4, 3-6, 6-0 victory over Elise Mertens of Belgium.

The American, who faces China’s Zhang Shuai in the first round at Melbourne Park, racked up 44 winners against Mertens, who was chasing a third title in Hobart after triumphs in 2017 and 2018, as well as a runners-up finish last year.

At the Memorial Drive Tennis Centre in Adelaide, Madison Keys of the US beat compatriot Jessica Pegula 6-3, 4-6, 6-1 in the women’s singles final.

AUCKLAND CLASSIC

AP, AUCKLAND, New Zealand

French veteran Gael Monfils yesterday became the oldest player to win an ATP Tour title after beating Zizou Bergs 6-3, 6-4 at the Auckland Classic.

Monfils claimed his 13th tour title 20 years after his first. At the age of 38 years, 132 days, he took over from Roger Federer, who was 38 years, 74 days old when he won the final tour title of his career, the Swiss Indoor title at Basel in 2019.

Prior to the start of the Auckland tournament, Monfils spoke about how his love of tennis kept him going.

“I love tennis. I love what I’m doing so of course all the sacrifices you do, they are a little bit easier. When you love something, it’s easier to keep pushing,” he said. “I’ve been enjoying myself since the first day I played tennis and [at] 60 years old, I will still have this joy. Practice, it’s easy. It’s in the DNA. Stay in shape, it’s easy. It’s more the travel.”