Gabriela Dabrowski and Luisa Stefani stormed back from a set down to defeat Su-Wei Hsieh and Jelena Ostapenko 2-6, 7-6 (2), 10-3.
The top-seeded team in Group 1 moves on to the semifinals with a perfect group-stage record following their 56th win of the season.
The first half of the match was ruled by breaks as Dabrowski and Stefani were broken four times in a strong opening set from their fifth-seeded opponents. The top seeds raised their level significantly after falling behind early in the second set and held on their final five service games to force a match tiebreak, where they would run away with the match.
They have now won 19 of their past 20 matches and need just two more wins to finish off what has been a magical season.
The Canadian-Brazilian pairing squandered their opening service game of the match, falling behind 0-40 before dropping the opening game on break point No. 4.
Hsieh and Ostapenko consolidated the break before their top-seeded opponents got on the board but remained down a break at 2-1. The fifth-seeded team grabbed a double-break lead soon after, as Dabrowski struggled from the baseline and hit a pair of forehands long to hand Hsieh and Ostapenko the big advantage.
Dabrowski and Stefani briefly got back into the first set but were promptly broken for a third time to fall behind 5-2. Ostapenko and Hsieh would quickly finish things off to take a fast first set 6-2 in just 32 minutes.
The fifth seeds picked up where they left off to begin the second set, breaking the top seeds two more times to go up a break at 3-1. Dabrowski would come back and earn her first hold of the match, ending a streak of four straight breaks by Hsieh and Ostapenko to provide a glimmer of hope in what had been a difficult match to that point.
The hold seemed to give the top seeds the momentum as they would go on to break Hsieh for the first time in the match to get the set back on serve, 4-4, and put themselves in the driver’s seat for the set.
Dabrowski and Stefani would finish off the set in a dominant tiebreak, earning three mini-breaks, to close out the second 7-6 (2) to force a deciding tiebreak.
The match tiebreak was more of the same as the top seeds earned five mini-breaks and, at one point, rattled off eight of nine points to clinch the match and top spot in the group.
Dabrowski and Stefani entered the match atop Group 1 with a 2-0 record following wins over Hanyu Guo and Kristina Mladenovic on Wednesday, and Elise Mertens and Shuai Zhang on Monday.
Hsieh and Ostapenko entered Friday’s match at 1-1 having lost to Guo and Mladenovic in their opening match on Monday.
This is Dabrowski’s eighth appearance at the WTA Finals, with her most successful trip coming in 2024 in Riyadh, where she won the title with Erin Routliffe. Stefani was the doubles runner-up last year alongside partner Timea Babos.
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