Second seeds Peng Shuai and Su-Wei Hsieh defeated the all-Spanish team of Garbine Muguruza and Carla Suarez Navarro to advance to the semifinals of the doubles competition at the WTA Finals in Singapore on Wednesday.

The Chinese and Chinese Taipei duo struggled a bit in the first set as they are paired once again after their last team-up at the U.S. Open in August and missed consecutive opportunities of breaking the Spanish duo early in the set.

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Muguruza and Navarro took advantage as they broke Shuai and Hiseh mid-way but the former World No. 1s came back and broke the Spaniards twice to take the set.

In the second set, the 28-year-olds Shua and Hsieh found their rhythm as they rallied five straight games to take an early 5-0 lead and eventually closed the match 6-4 6-1 in an hour and 24 minutes.

"It's great to play in Singapore in front of all the Chinese people," Hsieh said. "We are very happy and excited to be here."

"It's exciting to play in the first WTA Finals in Singapore," Shuai said. "There are so many Chinese fans supporting us. It's amazing to play here and to win our first match."

Next up for the French Open champions is the tandem of Russian Alla Kudryavtseva and Anastasia Rodionova of Australia who upset fourth seeded Russians Ekaterina Makarova and Elina Vesnina as they lost the first set but came back to take the next two sets 4-6 6-2 10-6.

Shuai and Hsieh have never played the Russian-Australian duo but Shuai has, along with new partner Andrea Hlavackova in the semifinals at the recent China Open where they won the tournament.

"I played them in Beijing," Shuai said. "They're a good team. They both like the baseline and are doing well this year. We'll try out best to focus and fight."

Their semis matchup is scheduled on Saturday.

TagsPeng Shuai, Su-Wei Hsieh