{"id":362599,"date":"2024-01-25T09:14:08","date_gmt":"2024-01-25T10:14:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=362599"},"modified":"2024-01-25T14:03:30","modified_gmt":"2024-01-25T14:03:30","slug":"chilly-handshake-marks-heartbreak-for-aussie-no-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=362599","title":{"rendered":"Chilly handshake marks heartbreak for Aussie No.1"},"content":{"rendered":"

Elise Mertens and Aussie Storm \ufeffHunter shared a less-than-cordial handshake at the net following their Australian Open<\/a> women's doubles semifinal.<\/p>\n

The pair were doubles partners for several years, winning two titles in 2023 and making it to the Wimbledon<\/a> final, on their way to claiming the No.1 doubles rankings.<\/p>\n

News of their abrupt split at the end of the season shocked the tennis world as the pair \ufeffannounced they would find new partners for the new year.<\/p>\n

LIVE:<\/strong> Australian Open 2024 day 12<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

LIVE:<\/strong> Australia vs West Indies second Test, day 1<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Gauff's savage reply to opponent's husband<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

"We're not playing together next year," Hunter said at the time.<\/p>\n

"We just both decided that we wanted to play with someone different \u2014 nothing kind of really happened or anything. We just wanted to change and a new challenge."<\/p>\n

\"Storm<\/p>\n

But after Mertens and her new partner Su-wei Hsieh downed Hunter and Czech Katerina Siniakova in their Australian Open<\/a> semi-final match on Thursday, their handshakes at the net was far from cordial.<\/p>\n

After being defeated 7-5, 1-6, 6-3, Hunter did not appear to look at Mertens as they shook hands and it did not look seem like they exchanged words either.<\/p>\n

This was the first time the pair had met since their break up.<\/p>\n

Watch the 2024 Australian Open live and exclusive on Nine, <\/strong><\/em>9Now<\/strong><\/em><\/a> and ad-free on <\/strong><\/em>Stan Sport<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\"Australian<\/p>\n

Mertens and Hsieh, who previously played together, partnered up for the Australian Open while Czech Katerina Siniakova joined Hunter.<\/p>\n

Similarly, former champions Siniakova and Barbora Krejcikova parted ways at the end of last year.<\/p>\n

They also had an icy exchange following their quarter-final match-up on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Krejcikova and Siegemund led early in the decider but Hunter and Siniakova eventually triumphed 4-6, 7-5, 6-4 after winning the last five games.<\/p>\n

\"Frosty<\/p>\n

As the match came to a close\ufeff, Siniakova and Krejcikova approached each other at the net, only clashing hands for a moment before turning to their other opponent. Not a word was uttered between them.<\/p>\n

Hsieh and Mertens will now face off against either Kichenok and Osatpenko or Dabrowski and Rout\ufeffliffe in the women's doubles final.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Elise Mertens and Aussie Storm \ufeffHunter shared a less-than-cordial handshake at the net following their Australian Open women's doubles semifinal. The pair were doubles partners […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":362601,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362599"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=362599"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362599\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":362605,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362599\/revisions\/362605"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/362601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=362599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=362599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=362599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}