Australian Open 2025 women’s doubles top seeds, Taylor Townsend and Katerina Siniakova, have come from behind to make their second Grand Slam final together, defeating a valiant Mirra Andreeva and Diana Shnaider, 6-7(4) 6-4 6-3 on Friday.
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In a highly-entertaining and seesawing first set, with little separating either team, it was Andreeva and Shnaider that narrowly edged out the tiebreak.
The second set swung in Townsend and Siniakova’s favour, highlighted by Townsend’s omnipresent net coverage, which cut off everything that came her way, and powerful groundstrokes.
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Despite getting broken when serving for the second set at 5-3, Townsend and Siniakova broke right back to tie the match at one set apiece.
The third set featured another Shnaider break of serve and with the finish line in sight, this time Townsend showed nerves of steel, successfully serving out the match.
First partnering up with Siniakova at Wimbledon 2024 where they won the title, the American is more measured this time around.
“It feels amazing,” Townsend said.
“Definitely different from Wimbledon, especially for me. Wimbledon, I was very excited but we’ve been playing some really great tennis here and now it’s like you’re doing the right things and if it happens it happens, if it doesn’t, it doesn’t. So, I’m more calm.”
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.
Despite polar opposite game styles, Hsieh and Ostapenko share the same on-court demeanour.
“We play a different game, but we don’t feel pressure when we’re down. I feel like we’re always ready for every point and (it’s) easy to come back,” Hsieh said.
“We’re helping each other when we really need to. When one player is not feeling her best, the other one is helping so I think this works really well,” Ostapenko added.
“She likes to hit big shots, but I try to hit some big shots (too),” Hsieh laughed.
Facing off against each other at last year’s AO women’s doubles final, Ostapenko explained what Hsieh adds to her game.
“I always felt like I needed someone who plays good at the net ‘cause I hit the ball quite powerful,” the Latvian said.
On the challenge of facing the No.1 seeds in the final, Ostapenko trusts in the strength of the pair’s game.
“I think they’re good players, but we have to more focus on our game and ourselves and do what we need to do,” she said.