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No. 2 seeds Su-wei Hsieh and Elise Mertens won the Indian Wells Masters doubles title after beating Veronika Kudermetova and Elena Rybakina 7-6 (1) 6-3. Hsieh and Mertens were twice up by a break in the first set but both times failed to hold on to their serve as Kudermetova and Mertens broke back in the 12th game to force a tie-break.
Hsieh and Mertens lost the opening point of the tie-break but then won seven consecutive points to win a tight opener. Hsieh and Mertens twice lost their serve in the second set but claimed three breaks to book a straight-set win.
Hsieh and Mertens win their second title
Hsieh and Mertens, who debuted as a pair in May, now have two team titles. On Sunday, Paula Badosa and Victoria Azarenka will clash in the women's final. "Mentally I think I'm very confident," Badosa said, per the WTA website.
"I'm believing every point. Every day I'm working very hard as well. I think I'm progressing on a little bit of everything and that's what is making my level going up. That's why I'm in a final and playing against the best of the world." Azarenka is hoping to win her first title of the season.
"I think my season has been tricky," Azarenka admitted. "There were parts where I physically couldn't necessarily bring that extra level, extra fight, which was very frustrating. Then there were parts where I felt that I was looking for something to add, and I didn't necessarily know what it was.
It was a lot of searching in the season, a lot of kind of stepping into unknown. "I feel like right now I'm a bit more settled with a bit more structure, a little bit more discipline, which makes it not necessarily easier but a bit clearer what I need to do.
So it doesn't take extra energy on that, so I can kind of focus my energy more on the fighting for every ball."
