Top seeds Katerina Siniakova and Taylor Townsend captured their second title of the season after defeating No. 3 seeds Hsieh Su-Wei and Jelena Ostapenko to win the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships.
The duel was a rematch of the Australian Open final, which Siniakova and Townsend won 6-2, 6-7(4), 6-3 to win their second Grand Slam title as a team.
Saturday’s final proved slightly easier, as Siniakova and Townsend prevailed 7-6(5), 6-4. Dubai is the third team title for Siniakova and Townsend and their first as a team at a WTA 1000. Their two prior titles both came at the Slams, breaking through at 2024 Wimbledon and Melbourne in January.
World No. 1 Siniakova completed a successful title defense in Dubai, where she was a champion with Storm Hunter last year. The win is Siniakova’s 30th career doubles title. Dubai is No. 3 Townsend’s ninth career doubles title.
After receiving an opening-round walkover, Siniakova and Townsend defeated Laura Siegemund and Beatriz Haddad Maia, and Kristina Mladenovic and Zhang Shuai en route to the final.
Little separated the two teams in the first set, which went the way of the server through the first six games. Hsieh and Ostapenko broke first with the help of the Latvian’s powerful work from the baseline but failed to consolidate and hold in the next game. They earned a chance to serve out the set at 6-5, but Hsieh could not close out the game from 40-0 up.
Siniakova and Townsend saved four set points to take the set to a tiebreak, where they squandered a 3-0 lead but won the last three points to take it. Having edged the first set — each team won 41 points — Siniakova and Townsend dominated play to earn the early break in the second set and protected their lead to the finish.
Source: https://www.wtatennis.com/news/4221503/siniakova-and-townsend-top-hsieh-and-ostapenko-again-to-win-dubai
