Elise Mertens and Veronika Kudermetova advanced to the doubles title match at the WTA Finals in Riyadh by defeating Katerina Siniakova and Taylor Townsend on Friday.
The match ended 4-6, 7-6 (8/6), 10-6, with the Belgian-Russian pair saving a match point in the second-set tiebreak before sealing victory on their first match point, after one hour and 52 minutes.
“I am so happy with the super tiebreak we played. Veronika was unstoppable,” Mertens said after the match, thanking the crowd for its support late into the night. The match finished at 1:30 a.m. local time.
Mertens and Kudermetova will face Hungary’s Timea Babos and Brazil’s Luisa Stefani in the final on Saturday at 2.00 p.m Belgian time. Babos and Stefani defeated Jelena Ostapenko and Hsieh Su-wei 6-4, 7-6 (7/5) in their semi-final.
Mertens and Kudermetova were champions of the WTA Finals in 2022, while Mertens was runner-up in 2021 alongside Hsieh.
