Taiwan’s Su-Wei Hsieh and Peng Shuai of China won the Wimbledon women’s doubles title on Saturday with a 7-6 (7/1), 6-1 win over the 12th seeded Australian Ashleigh Barty and Casey Dellacqua.
Hsieh, 27, is the first Taiwanese player to win a Grand Slam major. She will be splitting the winning prize of $450,000 with her partner Peng.
“This is very special because tennis is not that popular in Taiwan,” said Hsieh. “I am very proud to have won with my good friend although I am not sure if it will have any effect on juniors in my country.”
Peng and Hsieh are born four days apart in January 1986 and have been friends since they were 13. They won the first of their five titles together back in 2008.
Peng said her uncle taught her the double-handed style when she was a child. Earlier in the day, Marion Bartoli, with the same style, had clinched the singles title. Their win meant both of the women’s titles on Saturday were won by players using double-handed strokes off both wings.
“I was quite small and not very strong so my uncle told me it was easier to hit the ball this way. It was tough to change it after that because you get used to it,” said Peng.
Barty and Dellacqua were this year's women's doubles runners-up at their home Grand Slam - the Australian Open. Dellacqua was also a French Open doubles runner-up in 2008. However, they loss to Hsieh and Peng meant they were not able to capture the Wimbledon doubles champion since their country's Wendy Turnbull and Kerry Melville Reid in 1978.
The remaining Wimbledon finals match is the Gentlemen's Singles final, where British Andy Murray will play against world's No. 1 Novak Djokovic to contend for the 2013 finals. The game will be broadcasted live on Sunday morning, July 7, at 6:00 AM (PT).
Wimbledon's Slam Tracker will have live scores and stats through out. WatchESPN offers live streaming of the remaining Gentleman's Singles final tomorrow.
