It’s a good thing Su-Wei Hsieh’s doubles matches with partner Elise Mertens are going quickly at the 2021 US Open—the Taiwanese 35-year-old has a lot of culinary ground to cover in Manhattan when she’s not on court.
“I have a few restaurants I must go to,” she said. “One [Taiwanese] in Flushing; one Japanese in Manhattan; and one Korean. And Italian. And a burger. And a steak. And the French food. Oh, this French place doesn’t look like they are open because of COVID. I check online and I was like, ‘Oh noooo,' they’re closed!”
She and Mertens have breezed through the US Open draw without dropping a set through their quarterfinal match on Wednesday. Their opening round was a 6-0, 6-0 drubbing.
The dominating wins are leaving more time for eating as well as learning Japanese and French on an app, Hsieh’s current hobby. But fans would like to see the Su-Wei show in New York last a little longer.
Sometimes a player’s personality comes through loud and clear in their game. Sometimes it’s the opposite, like a gentle soul crushing the ball or a wallflower performing their best in front of 20,000 people.
Hsieh, currently No. 2 in the world in doubles, is a good example of the former. Fans know and love her as a quirky, light, breath of fresh air during a match. That’s exactly who she is in life, too.
On Instagram, she calls her free spirit #suweistyle. Like ink doodles of stick figures on her finger, cryptically identified as “tennis girl and office boy” (presumably Hsieh and her boyfriend, Frederic Aniere, who live together in Paris).
On the court, #suweistyle manifests as the best finesse game of the current era. The slightly built 35-year-old from Taiwan confounds opponents with guile, intelligence and improvisation. She never seems to run hard; she’s just always in the right spot, a testament to her brilliant anticipation. She never swings furiously, instead stroking uncomplicated, double-fisted groundstrokes that benefit from exquisite timing. She seems to have all the time in world to feather delicate, unpredictable angles that don’t seem like they should win points in professional tennis. But they do. A lot of them.
And after every otherworldly shot, she delicately dances away on her toes with carefree poise, a pristine image in a simple, elegant skirt and tank unadorned with sponsor patches. #suweistyle
Mentally, she seems as nonchalant as her game. “In singles, if you’re stuck, you’re stuck. If you cannot find a way out, you are stuck. Sometimes if I finish a match I say, 'OK, I [got] stuck today. Forget about it. I’ll go have some good food,'" she said.
“I quite enjoy [being] on court, especially in doubles. It’s more relaxing. If you have some trouble, you ask your partner to help. 'Elise, go go go!'” she says teasingly.
It can seem like Hsieh’s game comes so naturally to her that she doesn’t have to work at it. But she has had to sacrifice as much as anyone. Growing up in Taiwan and learning tennis from her father, there wasn’t a national training center or any professional players to explain how to break into the tour.
The lack of resources wasn’t the only reason she left Taiwan for Japan to improve. Taiwan, she says, is too nice. It’s hard to stay motivated there.
“You know sometime you stay someplace very safe, very comfortable, then you’re not hungry about tennis, about winning,” she said. “If I lost, sometimes people don’t know that I lost because I looked like, 'It’s okay.'”
She turned pro 20 years ago. In 2012, she broke into the Top 30 in singles and became the second player from her country to win a singles title. The next year, she and Peng Shuai won Wimbledon and soon became No. 1 in the world in doubles. Over the next few years, the floodgates opened as she won 28 more doubles titles, including two more Wimbledons, two French Opens, and the WTA Finals. Hsieh returned to No. 1 in the world in doubles in November 2020.
In 2018, her fanbase exploded when she reached the Round of 16 in singles at both the Australian Open and Wimbledon. In Melbourne, she beat No. 3 seed Garbiñe Muguruza, and in London, No. 1 seed Simona Halep.
Hsieh says she might not have lasted on the tour long enough to become a fan favorite if she didn’t eventually assemble a terrific team, including her coach, Australian tennis legend Paul McNamee, who once mentored Jennifer Capriati; her boyfriend, serving as a day-to-day coach; a physio; and a secret weapon, a WTA trainer who happens to live in Paris.
“If I am in Paris, I will ask her, 'Come to save my body, please!'” Hsieh said.
“They are helping me very, very much,” she continued. “That’s why I can still play singles and doubles. Otherwise, I am already done, like five years ago, maybe.”
“When you only play doubles, it’s hard to get [a] coach. You don’t have sponsorship so it’s hard to improve the label. That’s why I always play the singles as well, to have a team to travel. It’s very difficult to only play one [discipline], even if you have success in doubles,” she said.
McNamee pushed her to play singles when they hooked up about 12 years ago. She achieved her career-high ranking of No. 23 in just a year and a half. An injured ankle stopped her momentum, so McNamee asked who her best doubles partner had been. She said Peng, with whom she had won the French Open. They teamed up again and won Wimbledon.
Her younger brother and sister also play. Hsieh occasionally partners with her brother to play mixed doubles. But she knows they must find the motivation to make it on their own, like she did, with #suweistyle.
