Shnaider and Mertens lose Beijing doubles semifinal

Diana Shnaider and Elise Mertens have ended their doubles run at the WTA 1000 tournament in Beijing. The Russian-Belgian pair lost their semifinal to Gabriela Dabrowski and Luisa Stefani.

The October 10 match ended 6:4, 3:6, 10:7 in favour of the Canadian-Brazilian duo. It lasted one hour and 24 minutes.

Dabrowski and Stefani took the opening set before Shnaider and Mertens levelled the match. A deciding match tiebreak settled the semifinal, with Dabrowski and Stefani winning by three points.

Shnaider and Mertens were seeded sixth, while their opponents were seeded second. The higher-seeded pair advanced to the final.

Dabrowski and Stefani are due to face top seeds Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic and Zhang Shuai of China for the title. The tournament's prize fund is $9.4 million.

It was Mertens' second semifinal defeat at this tournament. In singles, she lost 5:7, 2:6 to China's Zheng Qinwen.