On March 18, Beijing time, the Chinese duo Xu Yipan / Yang Zhaoxuan defeated the multinational duo of Koone / Fernandez in two straight sets in the semifinals of the women's doubles of the WTA1000 class event Indian Wells, reaching the women's doubles final for the first time. It was also the second time the duo had reached the women's doubles final of a WTA Tour after last year's Dubai Championships.
Yang Zhaoxuan Data Map
In the first set of the women's doubles semifinals, the competition between the two sides was very fierce, and four "back-to-back" breaks were staged before and after. The first break is now in the second set, Xu Yipan / Yang Zhaoxuan took the lead and successfully broke the first serve of the game. However, the multinational team immediately completed the first "back-to-back" break of this set in the third set with color. But Xu Yipan / Yang Zhaoxuan was willing to give up, and they also completed a "back-to-back" breakback in the fourth set, preserving the innings lead. But the good times did not last long, and the situation in the seventh set was again turbulent, with Cone/Fernandez taking two break points 40-15 and then cashing in on the first break point. However, in the next inning, Xu Yipan / Yang Zhaoxuan once again staged a "back-to-back" breakback, once again taking the lead in the game into his own hands. But Koone/Fernandez also completed their second back-to-back comeback in the ninth set. The game looked set on a tie-break, but in the crucial twelfth inning, Xu Yipan/Yang Zhaoxuan scored three consecutive runs to establish a 40-0 lead, and then cashed in on the second break point to take the lead 7-5. The Chinese duo played much easier in the second set, quickly establishing a 3-0 set advantage, and then after the success of the fourth set of Cone/Fernandez, another wave of three consecutive sets, 6-1 to win the second set, thus advancing to the final.
Xu Yipan / Yang Zhaoxuan were the women's doubles champions at the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta and the women's doubles champions at last year's Shaanxi National Games. On the WTA Tour, the two began at the WTA Class 500 Abu Dhabi last January. However, in the fifth leg alone, they reached the women's doubles final of the WTA 500 Dubai Championship. Later, because of the preparation for the Tokyo Olympics, the two broke up and worked together again in July last year. Indian Wells is not only the second time the two have reached the final after working together, but also higher than the Dubai station, which reached the final last year. For winning over the opponent to advance to the final, Yang Zhaoxuan said: "I think we have been cooperating for a long time, and we will watch some videos of our opponents before training, including before the game. ”
But for Xu Yipan, the semi-final victory at Indian Wells meant more. In 2018 and 2019, she twice partnered Canadian player Dabrowski to reach the women's doubles semifinals at Indian Wells, but unfortunately failed to go any further. This time, her partner Yang Zhaoxuan passed the semi-finals, but Dabrowski, who was listed as the No. 5 seed of the tournament, and his new partner lost 10 to the No. 7 seeds Mohammed/Shibahara Yingcai in another semi-final that they had played before, and did not have the opportunity to meet Xu Yipan in the final.
Xu Yipan Data Map
For the final opponents Mohammed/Shibahara Yingcai, Xu Yipan said that she did not have time to prepare, she said: "We have watched some of their matches before, and tomorrow we will do some training to prepare for this final. It is worth mentioning that in the Adelaide competition in Australia at the beginning of the year, Xu Yipan/ Yang Zhaoxuan lost 10 to Fernandez and her then partner Lautliff.