Women’s doubles: Top seeds battle back to make decider

Despite taking it all in her stride, Townsend is still humbled by her recent doubles successes after over a decade on tour.

“It’s a first for me, and that’s a pretty cool experience to be able to be on tour for 12 years and still have firsts,” Townsend beamed.

Having only been partnered up six months ago, Siniakova explained why the pair gel so well, while Townsend believes they’re improving with every tournament they play.

“Definitely the game style we have suits each other. Leftie, rightie is also helpful. The chemistry on and off the court is also really good so I think it’s a combination of everything,” Siniakova said.

“One of the things I can say with full confidence is we’re playing better as a team over the last couple of weeks than we were doing a couple of months ago,” Townsend added.

The No.1 seeds will face Jelena Ostapenko and Su-Wei Hsieh in the final on Saturday, after the third seeds battled through second seeds Gabriela Dabrowski and Erin Routliffe 7-6(3) 3-6 6-3.  

In a similarly seesawing affair with momentum swings galore, the first set was a carbon-copy of the first women’s doubles match, as Ostapenko and Hsieh edged it out in a tiebreak.

Routliffe and Dabrowski responded emphatically in the second set, while the third seeds’ level dropped a fraction.

However, Ostapenko’s raw power and Hsieh’s court craft made for a lethal combination, which Dabrowski and Routliffe couldn’t fend off in the third set.