Indian Wells: Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens to face Coco Gauff and Leylah Fernandez in quarters
- The Belgian-Taiwanese second seeds seal place in last eight with comeback win over Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Iga Swiatek
- Race to WTA Finals points are on the line as teen duo stand in the way of semi-final spot in Southern California
Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Belgian partner Elise Mertens have helped their claims for a place at next month’s WTA Finals with a second round win at Indian Wells to move on to the quarter-finals.
Hsieh, 35, and Mertens, 25, beat Bethanie Mattek-Sands of the US and Poland’s Iga Swiatek in three sets at the BNP Paribas Open on Monday night in California.
It was the US-Polish pairing that took the first set with Mattek-Sands and Swiatek swatting Hsieh and Mertens aside 6-1.
The No 2 seeds played to their pre-tournament ranking in the second set, winning 6-4 to take it to a third set shoot-out.
Mertens and Hsieh won out – taking the shoot-out 10-8 for a place in the quarter-finals where they will face the teenage duo of Coco Gauff and Leylah Fernandez, the latter of whom reached the singles final at the US Open last month.
Gauff, 17, and Fernandez, 19, beat Demi Schurs and Nicole Melichar to reach the quarters, romping past the No 5 seeds in straight sets – 6-2, 6-3. The US-Canadian duo are yet to drop a set in the doubles.
