Round-robin doubles action at the WTA Finals Riyadh presented by PIF started with two Green Group upsets on Saturday, each from from a set down.

Last year’s WTA Finals runners-up Nicole Melichar-Martinez and Ellen Perez, the No.6 seeds, opened this year’s edition by bouncing back from a one-sided first set and defeating No.3 seeds Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens, 1-6, 6-1, [10-6]. 

WTA Finals Riyadh: Scores | Schedule | Standings

The first two sets in the opening Green Group match were completed in less than an hour, as both winning teams sprinted out to 4-0 leads. That set the stage for a tense match tiebreak, where the American-Aussie pair won five of the last six points to wrap up the 70-minute victory.

“I thought it was super important just to compete,” Perez said post-match. “Everyone can play good tennis here, and it’s just finding ways to win, getting balls in the court and competing. I think we did a good job of that to be able to fight back.”

It reversed the result of the only match between the two teams in 2024: a 6-2, 7-6(5) victory for Hsieh and Mertens at Indian Wells, where they won the title.

“Elise, I think she only missed one ball in the first set,” Melichar-Martinez said. “We just tried to regroup, and tell each other, ‘This is working, this is working,’ even though it wasn’t really working that much, just try and get a few more balls in the court, and hopefully they miss some.”

Melichar-Martinez and Perez ended the match with 17 winners to 16 unforced errors, with Hsieh and Mertens hitting just 10 winners to 16 unforced errors.

Then, in the late match, No.8 seeds Katerina Siniakova and Taylor Townsend won a clash between two of this year’s Grand Slam-winning teams.

Reigning Wimbledon champions Siniakova and Townsend saved a match point and edged past No.1 seeds and reigning US Open champions Lyudmyla Kichenok and Jelena Ostapenko 3-6, 6-3, [11-9].

More to come…