MARSEILLE, France — Australian Open champion Jannik Sinner has pulled out of next week’s Open 13 Provence in Marseille, organizers of the French tournament said.
Organizers announced the fourth-ranked Sinner’s withdrawal on X, formerly known as Twitter, but did not say why. They offered his slot for the Feb. 5-11 indoor tournament to Australian Open semi-finallist Alexander Zverev.
The 22-year-old Italian player won his first Grand Slam title Sunday when he defeated Daniil Medvedev in five sets, rallying from two sets down against the big-serving Russian.
Sinner became Italy´s first man to win a major singles title in nearly a half century.
He reached the ATP Finals championship match at home in Turin and then led Italy to the Davis Cup title in consecutive weeks in November.
Hseih Su-wei of Taiwan, meanwhile, has become the second-oldest woman to win a Grand Slam doubles title after teaming with Elise Mertens of Belgium to win the Australian Open women´s doubles.
The second-seeded pairing of Hseih and Mertens beat 11th seeded Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia and Lyudmyla Kichenok of Ukraine 6-1, 7-5 in the final. It was Hseih´s seventh Grand Slam women´s doubles title and Mertens´ fourth, their second together.
The 38-year-old Hsieh follows Rohan Bopanna of India who became the oldest men´s champion, at 43, when he won the men´s doubles title with Matthew Ebden of Australia.
Hseih and Mertens needed only 1 hour, 33 minutes on Rod Laver Arena to pad their already impressive Grand Slam resumes. They took the first set in just over half and hour.
The second set was much tighter as Mertens lost her serve in the opening game. She recovered to serve for the championship at 5-3 but was broken again.
Finally, Hseih and Mertens took the match when they broke Kichenok in the 12th game. Mertens leapt into the air in delight; Hseih was more reserved.
They make a formidable combination, Mertens with the stronger serve, Hseih with skillful touches around the net and flat, strong ground-strokes. “It was a tough final,” Mertens said according to AP. “The second set was really close.
“It was a really great match for us and we had to stay focused all the time.”
Ostapenko and Kichenok faced a tough road to the final, beating the U.S. Open champions Gabriela Dabrowski and Erin Routliffe 7-5, 7-5 in the semifinals.
They lacked communication and teamwork in the first set but worked better together in the second in which Ostapenko´s serve was dependable. Kichenok lost her serve in the fourth, eight and final games.
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