Errani and Paolini Edge Top Seeds Siniakova and Townsend in WTA Finals Doubles Thriller

The first doubles match of the WTA Finals had everything the opening day of a season-ending championship is supposed to have: the top seeds, the Olympic champions, a set each, and a finish that came down to a handful of points.

Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini, the Italian pair who won Olympic gold together in Paris, took the opener 6-4 against Katerina Siniakova and Taylor Townsend on Sunday at Stadium 2 in Indian Wells. The Czech-American pair are the top seeds in Group 2 of the doubles draw, and they answered the way top seeds do, running away with the second set 6-1 to force the match tiebreak that decides doubles matches at this level when the sets are split.

That tiebreak went the distance. Errani and Paolini held their nerve to take it 10-8, sealing a win that puts them in early control of their group at a tournament where only the top two teams from each group of four reach the semi-finals. It was the kind of result that can shape a whole week: beating the top seeds in your group on day one changes the arithmetic for everyone else in it.

The match was the third contest of a busy opening day at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden, where the season-ending championships are being staged for the first time after two years in Riyadh. Earlier on Sunday, Linda Noskova marked her WTA Finals debut with a 6-2, 6-4 win over late call-up Marta Kostyuk, and Coco Gauff outlasted Jessica Pegula 6-4, 6-7(5), 6-2 in the first singles match of the group stage. The doubles now runs alongside the singles through to the finals on Sunday, November 15, with each team playing the other three in its group.

For Errani, at 39 still one of the sharpest doubles minds in the game, and Paolini, whose singles breakthrough has made her one of the sport's biggest names, the win is a reminder of how dangerous they are as a pair. They have the biggest prize in the sport together already — that gold medal from Paris — and they play with the easy understanding of a team that has won the matches that matter most. Siniakova, the world No. 1 doubles player, and Townsend, her partner for the season, will have to regroup quickly: in a four-team group, there is no room for a slow start, and their next match now carries the weight of a team that cannot afford to fall to 0-2.

The second doubles match of the day, between Cristina Bucsa and Nicole Melichar-Martinez and Ellen Perez and Demi Schuurs, was still in progress as the evening wore on. The group stage continues on Monday, when the singles spotlight shifts to Group 2 and Aryna Sabalenka opens her campaign against Karolina Muchova.