Hsieh Su wei

Biography

Hsieh was born to parents Hsieh Tze-lung and Ho Fom-ju in Hsinchu and raised in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. She was introduced to tennis by her father at five years of age. Her younger sister, Hsieh Shu-ying, is also a professional tennis player. Hsieh named her tennis idols as Steffi Graf and Andre Agassi. She has trained at a Taipei tennis school run by Hu Na, a former mainland Chinese player who defected to the US in 1982.

After Hsieh Su-wei won the 2013 Wimbledon doubles championship with her Chinese partner Peng Shuai, her father said that a Chinese company had offered her a sponsorship deal worth 10 million yuan (US$1.63 million) per year, on the condition that she switch her citizenship to the People's Republic of China. His remarks caused controversy in Taiwan, even though Hsieh stated that she was not interested in the offer. In response, the government of Taiwan mobilized domestic companies to offer her competing deals.

Playing style

Hsieh has a very different style of play, compared to most of the other players. She hits the ball with two hands on both sides, thus hitting very flat. Her unorthodox way of playing creates many big angles in her game and makes her shots unpredictable.

Hsieh, unlike most other players, is able to play drop shots and slices on clay court successfully.

Many top players have praised Hsieh's unusual playing style. Maria Sharapova, after her third-round win over Hsieh at Wimbledon 2012, said, "I faced her many times in the juniors. She used to be a nightmare for me because she used to slice and dropshot on clay. I was like, 'Where did they learn how to play tennis like that?' She uses both hands, switches racquets. That's her game, it's to hit a lot of dropshots and slices and get people kind of crazy."

Early years

During the 2001 Australian Open Junior Grand Slam event, Hsieh reached the girls' singles quarterfinals and the round of 16 in the girls doubles event with partner Natalie Ko, losing in two sets to eventual champions, Petra Cetkovská and Barbora Strýcová. Hsieh displayed stunning results in the 2001 season as a 15-year-old. Playing on the ITF Circuit, she won all of the five events she entered at Wellington, Kaohsiung, Bangkok (twice), and Peachtree City from January until November. She also competed on her first two WTA Tour events, reaching the semifinals in Bali and the quarterfinals in Pattaya. Although she only played seven tournaments in 2001, she had an impressive 41–2 record, in addition to starting her career with 37 wins in a row. She had success on the doubles circuit as well, reaching two finals and winning one of them.

2006–2008

In 2006, Hsieh entered Wimbledon for the first time and lost in the first round in both singles and Ladies' Doubles. The following year, she entered Wimbledon again, losing in the first round in both Ladies' Singles and Doubles.

Su-wei started 2008 by winning three matches to qualify for the Australian Open, where she won her first main-draw Grand Slam match, defeating Klára Zakopalová in three sets. In the second round, she beat 19th seed Sybille Bammer and defeated Aravane Rezaï in the third round to become first Taiwan Team player to reach the fourth round of a Grand Slam. She then lost in the fourth round to the World No. 1 Justine Henin in straight sets. The result would lift her into the Top 100 for the first time.

In March, Hsieh played at Indian Wells, losing in the first round to Elena Vesnina in three sets. A week later, she lost again, this time in the first round of qualifying, to Tatiana Poutchek in Miami. These two defeats saw her ranking fall to 116.

At the end of April, Hsieh entered the ITF tournament in Incheon as the first seed, and won the tournament, defeating Chinese player Yanze Xie in three sets. As a result of this win, Hsieh's ranking rose to 99.

In June 2008, Hsieh had her best Wimbledon Ladies' Singles result by making it to the second round and losing to No. 9 seed Dinara Safina. She beat Stéphanie Cohen-Aloro in the first round. It was Hsieh's third Wimbledon appearance.

2009

In January at the Australian Open, unseeded Hsieh lost to unseeded countrywoman Chan Yung-jan in the first round of women's singles. In women's doubles, she partnered with Peng Shuai of China and as the number 16 seeds defeated the number two seeds Anabel Medina Garrigues and Virginia Ruano Pascual of Spain in the third round and made it to the quarterfinals before losing to the eventual champions, tenth-seeded Serena Williams and Venus Williams. Hsieh would win three WTA doubles titles over the course of the year, each with Peng, winning in Sydney, Rome, and Beijing. She would finish the year in the top 10 of the doubles rankings, at No. 9.

2010–2011

She lost in round one of the 2010 Guangzhou International Women's Open to Han Xinyun. This was her only main draw WTA match of 2010.

At Wimbledon, she reached the semifinals of mixed doubles, with Australia's Paul Hanley. Partnering Zheng Jie, she won the doubles event at the 2011 Guangzhou International Women's Open.

Hsieh won 3 ITF singles titles in 2011; at Mildura (in February), Beijing (in August) and Seoul (in October).

2012

In March 2012, aged 26, she won her first WTA singles title, beating Petra Martić at the BMW Malaysian Open. She also reached the 3rd round of Wimbledon for the first time losing to then-world No. 1 Maria Sharapova.

At the Summer Olympics, she represented Taiwan in the women's singles and in women's doubles with Chuang Chia-jung. Although she was knocked on in the first round of the singles, she and her partner reached the quarter finals in the doubles.

In September, she beat Laura Robson of Great Britain in three sets to win the Guangzhou International Women's Open – her second WTA singles title. Despite being 0–2 down in each of the first two sets, having 5 match points saved in the second set, and being 0–3 down in the final set, she fought back to win in searing heat. The match had to be suspended at one set apiece as both players suffered in soaring temperatures.

2013: Top 25

Hsieh began the season at the inaugural Shenzhen Open, seeded 4th. She lost in the second round to Annika Beck. She then lost in the first round of the Moorilla Hobart International to regular doubles partner Peng Shuai. At the Australian Open, Hsieh won her first round but lost in the second to Svetlana Kuznetsova. In doubles, Hsieh and Peng lost a tough match to top seeds Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci in the third round.

Hsieh entered the PTT Pattaya Open but lost to Marina Erakovic in the first round. She then lost in the second round in Doha and Dubai. As the defending champion in Kuala Lumpur, Hsieh was seeded 2nd and advanced to the quarterfinals with wins over Kurumi Nara and Zhang Shuai. However, she lost in the quarterfinals to eventual finalist Bethanie Mattek-Sands. Her ranking fell from 23 to 35 as a result. Hsieh then fell in the second round of the BNP Paribas Open and Sony Open Tennis.

During the clay season, she fell in first round of the Mutua Madrid Open, Internazional BNL d'Italia, French Open and second round of the Internationaux de Strasbourg in singles, but won a doubles title in Internazional BNL d'Italia with Peng Shuai. Having tasted success in doubles, she then went on and won four additional titles with Peng Shuai in doubles, namely Wimbledon Championships, Western and Southern Open, Guangzhou International Women's Open and WTA Tour Championships. By qualifying and winning the WTA Tour Championships, Hsieh (along with Peng) became the first Asian player of any kind to ever won a season ending championship and finished her doubles season ranked No. 3 in the world.

Hsieh's singles season ended disappointing with numerous first round fell and only five second round shows in AEGON International, Wimbledon Championships, US Open, Guangzhou International Women's Open and BGL BNP Paribas Luxembourg Open.

2014

After training with her coach Paul McNamee in Australia, she started her season by playing in qualification of Brisbane International and Sydney. She lost in qualifications for both tournaments but received a lucky loser spot in Brisbane due to Caroline Wozniacki withdrawing late. However, she still lost in Round 32 to Carla Suárez Navarro. At PTT Pattaya Open, Hsieh was defeated in the first round by Tadeja Majerič but won a week later in qualifying at Qatar Total Open. Hsieh also defeated Flavia Pennetta in first round of Qatar Total Open before losing to Sara Errani.

Hsieh won her first doubles title with Peng Shuai at Qatar Total Open in 2014 and reached career high No. 2 in doubles. Later in May, with the semifinal run in doubles at Madrid, Hsieh will share the No. 1 ranking with Peng for at least a week, establishing the first individual in Taiwan to receive the No. 1 ranking in Tennis, whether in singles or doubles, male or female. However, she failed to defend her title with Peng Shuai in Internazional BNL d'Italia by losing to Anabel Medina Garrigues and Yaroslava Shvedova in the second round in straight sets.

With doubles competition in the way, Hsieh missed all the singles events during the Clay season except French Open, where she lost in the first round of qualifying. In doubles, she came through one of the most difficult doubles draws with Peng by defeating unseeded Svetlana Kuznetsova and Samantha Stosur in the first round in straight sets, breezed through former No. 1, fifteenth seed Liezel Huber and Lisa Raymond in the third round, grinded three sets with fifth seed Sania Mirza and Cara Black in the Quarterfinals and Garbiñe Muguruza and Carla Suárez Navarro, whom they lost to in Madrid, in the Semifinals and defeated second seed Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci in the final in straight sets.

2015

In Australian Open, Hsieh lost in the qualifying 1st round for singles, and main draw 2nd round for doubles, but she reached main draw semifinals in mixed doubles with Pablo Cuevas.

In April, Hsieh won two ITF $25,000 tournaments (in Shenzhen and Nanning).

Singles

All results are included in Career Win–Loss records but only Main Draw results in WTA Tour, Grand Slam Tournaments and Olympic Games are recorded.

This table is current through the 2016 Australian Open.

I = Indoor ; IC = Indoor Carpet ; A = Absent ; B = Blue ; NH = Not Held ; P = Premier ; T II = Tier II

Doubles

All results are included in Career Win–Loss records but only Main Draw results in WTA Tour, Grand Slam Tournaments and Olympic Games are recorded.

This table is current through the 2015 WTA Elite Trophy.

I = Indoor; IC = Indoor Carpet; A = Absent; B = Blue; NH = Not Held; P = Premier; T II = Tier II

Mixed Doubles

NH = Not Held | Mixed Doubles partners:
^AFAshley Fisher ^AQAisam-ul-Haq Qureshi ^BSBruno Soares ^CFColin Fleming ^FNFrederik Nielsen ^HKHenri Kontinen ^JMJamie Murray
^KUKevin Ullyett ^MFMariusz Fyrstenberg ^MMMarcin Matkowski ^PCPablo Cuevas ^PHPaul Hanley ^RBRohan Bopanna ^RKRaven Klaasen