Samantha Stosur and Zhang Shuai, long-time good friends and a newly-formed long-term doubles pair this year, have successfully qualified for the prestigious WTA Finals on their first attempt after what can be considered a stellar year. Winning a Grand Slam doubles title together, the first for Zhang and Stosur’s third, they are one of the best pairings in the business now and will look to vie for the WTA Finals Martina Navratilova trophy in Shenzhen.
Stosur and Zhang first rose to prominence when they stormed to claim the Australian Open title in their first tournament of the year, beating many other top-seeded teams in the process. Reaching the Miami Open final further proved their credentials and labelled themselves as a force not to be reckoned with.
Three consecutive quarterfinals during the clay season were the highlight of the rest of their season as they failed to rekindle the spark which got them to the pinnacle of the sport. Stosur and Zhang will be hoping that they can find their momentum and mount a serious challenge for the title in the Chinese’s home country.
Other qualified pairings include Hsieh Su-wei/Barbora Strycova, Timea Babos/Kristina Mladenovic, Elise Mertens/Aryna Sabalenka, Gabriela Dabrowski/Xu Yi-fan and Chan Hao-ching/Latisha Chan.