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Zhang/Mladenovic put up gallant effort in loss to women's doubles top seeds at Australian Open

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Zhang Shuai (R) of China pairs with Kristina Mladenovic of France and hits a shot against Taylor Townsend of the USA and Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic in a women's doubles quarterfinal match at the Australian Open at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Australia, January 22, 2025. /VCG
Zhang Shuai (R) of China pairs with Kristina Mladenovic of France and hits a shot against Taylor Townsend of the USA and Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic in a women's doubles quarterfinal match at the Australian Open at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Australia, January 22, 2025. /VCG

Zhang Shuai (R) of China pairs with Kristina Mladenovic of France and hits a shot against Taylor Townsend of the USA and Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic in a women's doubles quarterfinal match at the Australian Open at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Australia, January 22, 2025. /VCG

Zhang Shuai of China and Kristina Mladenovic of France ended their women's doubles run at the Australian Open in the quarterfinals, after falling to the top-seeded duo of Taylor Townsend of the USA and Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic 6-1, 7-5 in 70 minutes at Melbourne Park on Wednesday afternoon.

Taking part in three events at this season's first Grand Slam, Zhang reached the second round in women's singles, and last eight in both women's doubles (with Mladenovic) and mixed doubles (with Rohan Bopanna of India).

After dropping the first set in under half-an-hour, Zhang and Mladenovic put up a gallant effort in the second, coming back from 5-2 down and saving two match points, before eventually falling to the reigning Wimbledon champions.

"There was definitely a lot of pressure," Siniakova said of the fightback. "We made mistakes, and suddenly it was close, but we were the ones who had the set up, so we were still trying to fight, and I'm really happy that we managed to finish it."

With the score level at 1-1 in the opening set, Townsend and Siniakova reeled off five straight games to close it out.

The top seeds then appeared likely to cruise to victory when they broke Mladenovic's serve early in the second set for a 3-1 lead.

At 5-3, with Townsend serving for the match, Zhang brought up three break points with a forehand winner down the line, the first of which was converted when Townsend sailed a volley wide.

Zhang had an opportunity to level the set at 5-5 on her serve in the next game, and saved two match points to do so.

Trailing 6-5, Mladenovic had a service game to force a tiebreak, but fell behind 40-30 and could not save a third-match point opportunity against Townsend and Siniakova.

The American and Czech duo hit 25 winners in the match, nearly double the 13 of China's Zhang and France's Mladenovic, while both teams committed 14 unforced errors.

The top seeds will face the Russian pair of Mirra Andreeva and Diana Shnaider in the semifinals.

Source(s): Xinhua News Agency
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