Tennis · International
Siniakova and Townsend withstand comeback to win Australian Open doubles title
The top seeds beat Hsieh Su-wei and Jelena Ostapenko 6-2, 6-7(4), 6-3 in the women's doubles final, giving Townsend her second major and Siniakova her tenth.
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The top seeds complete the job
Katerina Siniakova and Taylor Townsend won the Australian Open women's doubles championship on 26 January 2025, beating third seeds Hsieh Su-wei and Jelena Ostapenko 6-2, 6-7(4), 6-3 on Rod Laver Arena. The final lasted two hours and 27 minutes. It was the second Grand Slam title for the Czech-American pairing, which had won Wimbledon on its first major appearance together in 2024.
For Siniakova, the victory brought her women's doubles major total to ten. For Townsend, it supplied a second senior major title and a meaningful return to the arena where she had won the Australian Open junior singles championship in 2012. Those milestones belonged to different stages of their careers, but the result was achieved by a partnership that had only recently established itself among the leading teams.
A lost lead does not become a lost final
The opening set gave the No.1 seeds a clear advantage, but the match became substantially more difficult in the second. Hsieh and Ostapenko recovered from 3-5 to force a tiebreak, which they won 7-4. Siniakova and Townsend therefore had to reset after coming close to finishing the match in two sets.
The decisive set went 6-3 to the top seeds. The practical difference was their ability to keep competing after the missed chance, rather than treating the second-set reversal as a verdict on the final. Townsend's post-match assessment emphasized that mental response and the way the team worked through difficult passages. Hsieh and Ostapenko, both major winners with other partners, had made the final a contest between accomplished doubles players rather than a procession based on seedings.
A partnership with an established pattern
The champions had already required a comeback in the semifinals. On 24 January, they lost the first-set tiebreak to Mirra Andreeva and Diana Shnaider before winning 6-7(4), 6-4, 6-3. Australian Open reporting highlighted Townsend's net coverage and groundstrokes as the match turned. That semifinal and the final demanded different recoveries: one from an early deficit, the other after an opportunity to close had slipped away.
The pairing's 2024 Wimbledon title and subsequent US Open semifinal had provided an early foundation. By the end of the Melbourne final, their first three majors together had yielded two trophies and one semifinal. Their progress thus extended beyond one successful fortnight, while the repeated three-set tests in Melbourne showed the amount of work required to convert that position into another championship.
Individual history inside a team achievement
Siniakova's tenth major placed her at a landmark no women's doubles player had reached since Martina Hingis won her tenth at Wimbledon in 2015. Her collection now included three Australian Open titles, following victories with Barbora Krejcikova in 2022 and 2023. The Melbourne result strengthened a record built with more than one successful partner.
Townsend's path supplied another dimension. Seven of her eight WTA doubles titles at that point had come after her return from maternity leave in 2022. She also linked the final to the experience of playing on Rod Laver Arena as a teenager. The championship joined those personal histories to an immediate sporting outcome: the No.1 seeds survived a genuine challenge from the third seeds and left Melbourne with the trophy.
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