When Hsieh Su-Wei walked onto the court to play doubles with partner Elise Mertens at the Miami Open in March, she carried the burden of a cumbersome tennis bag containing six rackets, an assortment of snacks and several sets of clothes. I didn’t feel it. And shoes.
Despite Hsieh, 38, the world No. 1 in doubles, wore clothes devoid of any logos associated with the lucrative sponsorship deals many of her peers on the WTA Tour have. Until recently, she said, Hsieh had no manager, so she had to sell herself to sponsors. So far she has not been successful in her efforts.
“It’s not easy to deal with sponsorship when you’re not sure whether people will have you or not,” said Hsieh, who typically competes with just two rackets. She said she has never had a problem with it because she has never broken one, and that she “I don’t want to waste time doing that, I just want to focus on tennis,” he said.
Hsieh is not tied down to his sport and prefers to wander his own path. An accomplished singles player, she reached a career-high ranking of No. 23 in 2013, but she has never advanced beyond the quarterfinals in a major tournament. She rose to No. 1 in doubles for the first time in 2014, and won the 2013 Wimbledon and 2014 French Open, both with Feng Shuai. She won her second Wimbledon title in 2019 with Barbora Strycova, and her third with Mertens two years later.
After leaving the Tour for nearly 18 months at the end of 2021 to heal a muscle strain in his leg that led to retirement, Hsieh returned last April and has now won three of the last four majors. partner. At last year’s French Open, he won the championship paired with Wang Xinyu, who is about 16 years his junior. Hsieh captured Wimbledon with Strycova.
After Strycova retired after the U.S. Open last fall, Mertens messaged Hsieh and asked him to join her this season. The pair won doubles titles at the Australian Open in January (where Hsieh also won mixed doubles with Jan Zielinski) and the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells in March. The win helped her reclaim her first place ranking.
“We felt each other on the court and communicated a lot,” Mertens said. “It’s hard to find people who can move toward each other and think, ‘Let’s grow together.’”
Hsieh, who retired from singles play this spring, knows his time on the tour is numbered, but he’s not deterred by that fact. Her playstyle is precise, explosive, and cunning at times, much like her personality. Sometimes even she doesn’t know which shot she’s going to hit and when.
When she started playing with her father at the age of 5, she was small and played with both hands. She slides towards the net with ease and is constantly looking for an opportunity to sneak in and knock down her volley winners. Her tour mates call her the Wizard because of her chaotic shot-making.
Hsieh no longer has a regular coach, but Paul McNamee accompanies her to major tournaments, including this French Open. At home in Paris, where she has lived for almost ten years, she often practices with her boyfriend, Frederic Aniere, and sometimes at Roland Garros. On her way, she is sometimes joined by her older brother, Hsieh Cheng-peng, and his children playing tennis. She finds that having a variety of voices in her own ears helps keep her game fresh.
Hsieh hopes to represent Taiwan at the Paris Olympics this July, something she hasn’t done since 2012, when she lost in the first round of singles and the quarterfinals of doubles.
“Winning a Grand Slam is the top priority for me,” she said. “But I always want to win a medal representing Taiwan. For me it will be something special.”
After traveling the world for nearly 25 years, Hsieh was asked what keeps her going. She burst out laughing.
“That’s a good question. Because I’m asking myself what am I doing here,” she said. “If you just try to enjoy it, the answer will come someday. “I’m not in a hurry.”
