The first doubles team to qualify for the BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global, Hingis and Mirza have reached eight straight semifinals dating back to the Aegon International Eastbourne and are currently riding a 15-match winning streak - one that includes title runs at the US Open, the Guangzhou International Women's Open, and the Dongfeng Motor Wuhan Open.
Looking to stop the "Santina" train are the hometown favorites and Chinese wildcards, Liang Chen and Wang Yafan, who edged No.4 seeds Timea Babos and Kristina Mladenovic, 7-6(6), 7-5. With just four points separating the combatants over two sets, Liang and Wang broke serve one last time to put themselves in the semifinals over their higher-ranked opposition, who qualified for Singapore earlier this week.
On the other half of the draw, No.6 seeds and sister act Chan Yung-Jan and Chan Hao-Ching follow up their impressive summer surge with a big win over No.2 seeds Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Elena Vesnina, 4-6, 7-5, 10-7. Both Mattek-Sands and Vesnina have already qualified for Singapore with Lucie Safarova and Ekaterina Makarova, respectively, but the Chans - also known as Latisha and Angel - could also make their WTA Finals debut should they win the China Open this week.
Standing in their way is another Singapore team in No.3 seeds Casey Dellacqua and Yaroslava Shvedova. The third team to qualify, Dellacqua and the recently married Shvedova edged past another pair of Singapore hopefuls and No.8 seeds, Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka, 6-4, 6-4.
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