ROME, May 10 (Xinhua) -- China's Wang Xinyu and Hsieh Su-wei of Chinese Taipei came from a set down to defeat China's Zhang Shuai and Belgium's Elise Mertens 6-7 (2), 7-5, 10-6 and advance to the women's doubles last 16 at the Italian Open on Sunday.
The clash between two Grand Slam-winning pairs was tightly contested from the outset. The opening set went into a tiebreak, where Zhang and Mertens reeled off five consecutive points from 2-2 to take the set.
Wang and Hsieh turned the match around in the second set by breaking their opponents in the 10th game. The pair won three straight games late in the set to level the contest at one set apiece.
In the match tiebreak, Wang and Hsieh reeled off four consecutive points from 3-2 up before sealing the victory 10-6.
Reflecting on reuniting with Hsieh, with whom she won the 2023 French Open doubles title, Wang said they had approached the match with a relaxed mindset. "We just took it game by game today," she said. "We didn't really talk about using any particular tactics or specifically trying to break serve in certain games. I think we really enjoyed ourselves out there."
Zhang said losing serve when they tried to close out the match proved decisive, but added that she and Mertens had done everything they could. "That's doubles tennis. Sometimes one point can completely change the momentum of a match," she said. "But I think we gave our maximum effort, so we can accept the result."
Wang and Hsieh will next face Mirra Andreeva and Diana Shnaider.
In singles, men's second seed Alexander Zverev defeated Belgium's Alexander Blockx 6-1, 6-4, while women's second seed Elena Rybakina beat Alexandra Eala of the Philippines 6-4, 6-3. Fourth seed Iga Swiatek also advanced with a straight-sets win over Italy's Elisabetta Cocciaretto. ■
