Hsieh Su-wei (; ; born 4 January 1986) is a Taiwanese professional tennis player. A former world No. 1 in doubles with nine Grand Slam titles, she is regarded as one of the most successful and versatile doubles players in history. She is the highest-ranked Taiwanese player in history in both singles and doubles. She is known for playing with two hands on both sides, flat and quick groundstrokes, crafty and wily gameplay, aggressive volleys, and unorthodox variety of shots.
Hsieh reached her career-high singles ranking of No. 23 on 25 February 2013. On 12 May 2014, she reached No. 1 in the doubles rankings. She spent a total of 59 weeks with the top doubles ranking, the longest tenure by a tennis player from East Asia, and second-longest of any Asian player after Sania Mirza's 91 weeks. She has finished with a year-end top 10 doubles ranking eight times, including the year-end world No. 1 in 2020.
Hsieh has won three singles and 36 doubles titles on the WTA Tour, one WTA 125 doubles title, 27 singles and 23 doubles titles on the ITF Women's Circuit, seven medals at the Asian Games (two gold, three silver, and two bronze), and one gold and one bronze medal at the 2005 Summer Universiade. She has amassed nearly $13 million in prize money.
She has won seven major titles in women's doubles: at the 2013 Wimbledon Championships and the 2014 French Open with Peng Shuai, the 2019 and 2023 Wimbledon Championships with Barbora Strýcová, the 2021 Wimbledon Championships and the 2024 Australian Open with Elise Mertens, and the 2023 French Open with Wang Xinyu. Hsieh has also won two major titles in mixed doubles, winning with Jan Zieliński the 2024 Australian Open and the 2024 Wimbledon Championships.
Most of her singles success came on hardcourts, where she won all three of her WTA Tour titles, reached a Premier 5 semifinal at Dubai in 2019, defeated world No. 1, Naomi Osaka, to reach a Premier Mandatory quarterfinal at the 2019 Miami Open, and made the quarterfinals at the 2021 Australian Open, where she became the first Taiwanese woman to reach a major singles quarterfinal and, at 35, the oldest debutant Grand Slam singles quarterfinalist. She has also been successful on other surfaces, reaching the third round of the French Open in 2017 and defeating world No. 1, Simona Halep, to reach the fourth round at Wimbledon in 2018. Hsieh has beaten several top 15, top 10, and top 5 players.
Upon her retirement from singles in 2024, commentators called her "a killer on the court [who] can produce shots that defy geometry and the laws of physics" while also being deeply respected by her colleagues for her shotmaking abilities and her charming presence on the tour.
Biography Hsieh was born to parents Hsieh Tze-lung and Ho Fom-ju in Hsinchu and raised in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. She was introduced to tennis by her father at five years of age. Her younger sister Hsieh Shu-ying and brother Hsieh Cheng-peng are also professional tennis players. Hsieh named her tennis idols as Steffi Graf and Andre Agassi. She has trained at a Taipei tennis school run by Hu Na, a former mainland Chinese player who defected to the US in 1982.
Playing style Hsieh has an unorthodox style of play. She made a quip at the 2018 Australian Open saying, "Actually, my boyfriend was looking at her [Kerber's] game earlier this morning. I forgot to ask him what she play, so, I actually have no plan to go on the court. So I was trying to go my Su-wei style, you know." Despite her slight build and comparatively short stature, her two-handed groundstrokes are flat, powerful, and are hit with depth. She incorporates sliced backhands and forehands, drop shots, lobs, volleys, and sharply angled groundstrokes into points, and has been noted for her technical mastery, intelligent style of play, and impressive point construction. For these reasons, and due to the overall completeness of her game, she has been nicknamed by commentators "The Wizard".
Many top players have praised her unusual playing style. Maria Sharapova, after her third-round win over Hsieh at Wimbledon 2012, said, "I faced her many times in the juniors. She used to be a nightmare for me because she used to slice and dropshot on clay. I was like, 'Where did they learn how to play tennis like that?' She uses both hands, switches racquets. That's her game: it's to hit a lot of dropshots and slices and get people kind of crazy. We used to have real battles in the juniors. I knew her game really well and I don't think she had time to do all of that today on grass. If I'm hitting a hard‑paced shot, I don't think she really has time to create, which is something that she really likes to do."
Career Early years During the 2001 Australian Open Junior Grand Slam event, Hsieh reached the girls' singles quarterfinalsWomen's tournamentitftennis.com and the round of 16 in the girls doubles event with partner Natalie Ko, losing in two sets to eventual champions Petra Cetkovská and Barbora Záhlavová-Strýcová. Hsieh displayed stunning results in the 2001 season as a 15-year-old. Playing on the ITF Women's Circuit, she won all of the five events she entered at Wellington, Kaohsiung, Bangkok (twice), and Peachtree City from January until November. Hsieh also competed in her first two WTA Tour events, reaching the semifinals in Bali and the quarterfinals in Pattaya. Although she played only seven tournaments in 2001, she had an impressive 41–2 record, in addition to starting her career with 37 wins in a row. She had success on the doubles circuit as well, reaching two finals and winning one of them. She played in the qualifying rounds of all four Grand Slam tournaments in 2002, but was unable to advance to the main draw in any of them. After a quiet 2003, Hsieh experienced an upswing in her doubles in 2004, reaching five finals on the ITF Circuit and winning a pair of titles in Incheon and New Delhi. In October 2004, she reached her first WTA doubles final at the Korea Open at the age of 18, where she and compatriot Chuang Chia-jung were beaten by hometown players Cho Yoon-jeong and Jeon Mi-ra. She made her Grand Slam main-draw debut in 2005 by qualifying at the US Open, where she was beaten by Katarina Srebotnik in the opening round. By the end of the year, she had won ten singles and eleven doubles titles on the ITF Circuit.
2006–2007: First doubles titles In 2006, Hsieh lost in the final qualifying round at the Australian Open to former top 20 player Tamarine Tanasugarn but won her first main draw Grand Slam match en route to the second round in the women's doubles tournament. She was more successful at the next two Grand Slams though. Qualifying to the main draw of the French Open for the first time, Hsieh was defeated in the opening round by local wildcard Mathilde Johansson. She also qualified to her first main draw at Wimbledon, but was beaten in her first match by the 23rd seed Anabel Medina Garrigues, while also losing in the first round in doubles. Hsieh failed to qualify for the US Open, though, falling at the final hurdle to Kirsten Flipkens. She was able to produce much stronger results on the ITF Circuit, reaching two singles and six doubles finals, and winning one singles and four doubles titles, respectively.
The following year, Hsieh once again failed to qualify for either the Australian or US Opens, but qualified for the main draw at both the French Open and Wimbledon, where she lost in the first round both times. In doubles, she fell in the first round at three of the Grand Slam events, but made it to the second round at the French Open. Hsieh made a breakthrough though in doubles, starting with reaching two finals in Auckland and Bangalore in the first two months of the year with different partners. She then earned the biggest wins of her career with compatriot Chuang Chia-jung as the pair won the China Open, a Tier II tournament. This marked Hsieh's first title of any kind on the WTA Tour. They won a second title together the following week at the Korea Open, where she had reached her first WTA final three years earlier. She once again performed well on the ITF Circuit level, winning a pair of titles in both singles and doubles. While she finished the year ranked No. 143 in singles, she snagged her first year-end top 50 ranking in doubles, by finishing No. 46 in the world.
2008: Singles breakthrough Hsieh started 2008 by winning three matches to qualify for the Australian Open, where she won her first main-draw major match, defeating Klára Zakopalová in three sets. In the second round, she beat 19th seed Sybille Bammer and defeated Aravane Rezaï in the third round to become first Taiwanese tennis player to reach the fourth round of a major. She then lost in the fourth round to the world No. 1, Justine Henin, in straight sets. The result would lift her into the top 100 for the first time. She reached the doubles final at the Thailand Open in February with Vania King, losing to compatriots Chuang and Chan Yung-jan.
In March, Hsieh played at Indian Wells, losing in the first round to Elena Vesnina in three sets. A week later, she lost again, this time in the first round of qualifying, to Tatiana Poutchek in Miami. These two defeats saw her ranking fall to No. 116.
At the end of April, Hsieh entered the ITF tournament in Incheon as the first seed, and won the tournament, defeating Chinese player Xie Yanze in three sets. As a result of this win, her ranking rose to No. 99. At the French Open, she was defeated by qualifier Anastasiya Yakimova in the first round.
In June, she had her best Wimbledon ladies' singles result to date by making it to the second round. She beat Stéphanie Cohen-Aloro in the first round, claiming her first victory in her third main draw appearance at Wimbledon, before falling to No. 9 seed and French Open runner-up Dinara Safina.
At the Cincinnati Open, Hsieh lost in the first round in singles, but made it to the finals in doubles with Kazakh partner Yaroslava Shvedova. However, the pair were topped by the Russian duo of Maria Kirilenko and Nadia Petrova in a third set super-tiebreak. She then went on to record her first main-draw win at the US Open over Evgeniya Rodina before losing to Petrova in the second round. Hsieh then managed to end the year strong by winning the Bali International with Peng Shuai, and defending her title in Korea with compatriot Chuang. She finished the year ranked inside the top 100 in singles for the first time, at No. 79, and No. 53 in doubles.
2009: Top 10 debut in doubles Hsieh opened the 2009 season by winning the doubles title with Peng at her first tournament of the year, the Premier-level Sydney International, defeating Nathalie Dechy and hometown favorite Casey Dellacqua in the final. At the Australian Open, she was upset by compatriot Chan Yung-jan in the first round of women's singles. As a result, she dropped out of the top 100. In women's doubles, however, she and Peng fared much better. As the 16th seeds, the pair recorded back to back three set wins to advance to the third round, where they pulled off a major upset with a straight sets win over the second seeds Anabel Medina Garrigues and Virginia Ruano Pascual, losing just one game, thereby advancing Hsieh to her first major quarterfinals. However, the pair was defeated in the last eight by the eventual champions, tenth-seeded Serena Williams and Venus Williams.
Despite struggling the rest of the year in singles, winning just one WTA Tour main-draw match at the Guangzhou International later on in September, Hsieh put together her most prolific year in doubles thus far. After a pair of early exits in Indian Wells and Stuttgart, Hsieh and Peng advanced to the final of the Italian Open, a Premier-5 tournament, where they were seeded seventh. They then defeated the fifth seeds Daniela Hantuchová and Ai Sugiyama to win the title. This was Hsieh's sixth WTA doubles title, and the biggest of her career thus far.