US Open: Zhang Shuai and Sam Stosur into Cincinnati Masters doubles final

The 2019 Australian Open champions come back from a set down and trailing 5-1 in the second at Western & Southern Open

Chinese-Australian pairing win two matches on Friday to face Canada’s Gaby Dabrowski and Luisa Stefani of Brazil in showpiece

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China’s Zhang Shuai in action during the Western and Southern Open tennis tournament at Lindner Family Tennis Center. She and Samantha Stosur have reached the final of the women’s doubles in Cincinnati. Photo: USA Today Sports

Published: 11:24am, 21 Aug 2021Updated: 11:24am, 21 Aug 2021

China’s Zhang Shuai and partner Samantha Stosur of Australia came back from a set down and 5-1 down in the second set to reach the women’s doubles final at the US Open warm-up Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati.

The duo were facing defeat to Russia’s Anna Blinkova and Aliaksandra Sasnovich of Belarus, who had several chances to serve for the match, before an epic comeback to seal the second set 7-5 by winning six games in a row.

“That’s not the first time we’ve been 1-5 down and won the match,” Zhang told the media after the match. “We just tried to focus on ourselves and be patient.”

Zhang and Stosur then took the decisive third and final set tiebreaker 10-5 to seal a place in the WTA 1000 final and end a hard day’s work.

The semi-final was their second match of the day after playing the quarter-final against fourth seeds Nicole Melichar and Demi Schuurs.

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