Schuurs and Muhammad lost their first match on Saturday against the Italian couple Sara Errani/Jasmine Paolini. The two play one last match against the Taiwanese-Latvian duo Hsieh Su-Wei/Jelena Ostapenko, but can no longer qualify for the semi-finals.
Schuurs and Muhammad are number 8 on the placement list at the tournament where the best eight couples of this year meet each other. The Dutch woman reached the semi-finals in 2019, 2021 and 2022, each time with a different partner.
Botic van de Zandschulp eliminated early again
Botic van de Zandschulp was eliminated early at the tennis tournament in Athens. The Dutchman lost in the first round against Stan Wawrinka. The 40-year-old Swiss, previously ranked number 3 in the world, won in three sets: 6-2 6-7 (5) 5-7.
Van de Zandschulp, number 80 in the world rankings, reached a high level in the first set against Wawrinka. He only gave up five points on his own serve and broke his opponent twice.
Botic van de Zandschulp and Jesper de Jong fall in the qualifications for the masters tournament in Paris
The three-time Grand Slam winner from Switzerland won the evenly matched second set in the tiebreak. Van de Zandschulp played strongly in the third set to 5-5, but lost the match due to a few errors at the net on his own serve.
Botic from the Zandschulp. © ANP/HH
Van de Zandschulp (30) reached the final in Winston-Salem in August, but subsequently only managed to win two matches at ATP tournaments. Last week he failed in the qualifications for the Paris masters tournament.
Elena Rybakina beats Iga Swiatek at WTA Finals and takes a step towards a mega prize pool
Elena Rybakina also won her second group match at the WTA Finals in Riyadh on Monday. The tennis star from Kazakhstan defeated Poland’s Iga Swiatek in three sets 3-6 6-1 6-0.
Elena Rybakina. © ANP/HH
Rybakina took a big step towards the semi-finals. Rybakina won her first match against the American Amanda Anisimova in Saudi Arabia on Saturday.
The best eight players of the season participate in the WTA Finals. The tournament will be played on hard courts in Riyadh and has a prize pool of 15.5 million dollars. Coco Gauff is the defending champion.