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The Women's Tennis Association (WTA) announced on Monday that the doubles teams of Nicole Melichar-Martinez and Demi Schuurs, Elise Mertens and Hsieh Su-Wei, and Samantha Stosur and Zhang Shuai have secured qualification for the 2021 WTA Finals Guadalajara.
They join the Czech pairing of Barbora Krejcikova and Katerina Siniakova and the all-Japanese partnership of Shuko Aoyama and Ena Shibahara in the doubles field, leaving three qualification places remaining. Mertens and Hsieh, the current World No.1 and No.2 in doubles, will be making their debut appearance as a team at the WTA Finals and head into the tour's crown jewel event following a title-run at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells over the weekend. It marked their second tournament triumph of 2021. Earlier this year, they won their first Grand Slam title together at The Championships, Wimbledon. Another duo making their team debut at the WTA Finals is Melichar-Martinez and Schuurs, who have reached four finals across the season. They won the Qatar Total Open and Credit One Charleston Open and finished as the runners-up at the bett1open in Berlin and the Viking International Eastbourne. Making their second consecutive appearance as a team at the WTA Finals, Stosur and Zhang have enjoyed an end-of-season surge toward qualification, earning their place by winning two titles during the summer's North American swing, at the Western and Southern Open in Cincinnati and the US Open, their second Grand Slam title together. Guadalajara is playing host to the season-ending tournament for this year only, with the event returning to its home in Shenzhen, China in 2022. (ANI)
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