‘TOUGH MATCH’:Lucie Hradecka, who also made the women’s doubles final with Katerina Siniakova, said they had played well in all the matches between the two pairs

Taipei Times
Date: Sep 10, 2017
By: Dave Carroll / Staff reporter

Taiwan’s Chan sisters are to contest two of the finals at the US Open in New York after

Chan Yung-jan and Martina Hingis on Friday advanced to the final of the women’s doubles, while younger sister Chan Hao-ching and Michael Venus claimed a berth in the mixed doubles final.

Second seeds Chan and Hingis ousted fourth seeds Sania Mirza of India and Peng Shuai of China 6-4, 6-4 in 1 hour, 27 minutes on Grandstand Court at Flushing Meadows.

The Taiwanese-Swiss duo saved eight of 10 break points and converted four of seven, hitting 44 winners to set up a final against seventh seeds Lucie Hradecka and Katerina Siniakova, who upset fellow Czechs and third seeds Lucie Safarova and Barbora Strycova 6-2, 7-5 in 1 hour, 33 minutes.

“It was a tough one,” Hradecka told the WTA Web site. “It’s never easy in the semis or even the first round to play fellow Czechs, but I think we’re happy to make it through in two sets because the second set we lost momentum. Maybe that was my mistake because I called the physio after the first set. That might have made us less awake and caused a few mistakes.”    [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Sep 09, 2017
By: AFP, TOKYO

Taiwan have hired Englishman Gary White to coach the national soccer team in a bid

to breathe new life into their flagging bid to reach the Asian Cup.

“I’ll be taking over halfway through [qualifying], but it’s still a strong possibility,” the former Guam coach told reporters yesterday after signing a one-year deal.

“We’ve just got to start getting some points,” he said.

“I’ve got experience in international football, especially in Asia, and I know how to get results,” said White, who worked wonders on the tiny honeymoon island of Guam before going on to rescue Shanghai Shenxin from relegation in China last season.    [FULL  STORY]

‘I CAN ONLY IMAGINE’:Martina Hingis said that their semi-final against Sania Mirza and Peng Shuai would ‘probably be easier than having to play your sister’

Taipei Times
Date: Sep 09, 2017
By: Dave Carroll / Staff reporter

Elder sister Chan Yung-jan on Thursday prevailed in a showdown of sisters at the US

Open, as the Taiwanese and Martina Hingis of Switzerland took just 63 minutes to see off the challenge of younger sister Chan Hao-ching and Zhang Shuai of China 6-2, 6-2 at Flushing Meadows in New York.

In an emotional quarter-final on Court 17, the second seeds saved two of three break points and won five of 11, hitting 23 winners to advance to the semi-finals of the final Grand Slam of the year.

“It was really tough for me, definitely one of the toughest matches in my career,” Chan Yung-jan told the WTA Web site. “We know each other too well and know everything we want to do on the court.”

“It was very emotional during the match, but after the match, she’s still my sister,” she said. “It’s still great to be able to play her in the quarter-finals of such a big event. I tried to bring out my best tennis today and my partner helped me quite a bit.”

“At the end of the day, we did our job,” Hingis told the WTA Web site.

“It wasn’t easy for Latisha [Chan Yung-jan] to play her sister and waiting for the match for three days wasn’t simple,” she said of the rain delays that canceled the match on more than one occasion. “You keep getting ready and then once the match happens you have to bring your ‘A’ game. Under the circumstances, we did our best and played really good. The score at the end shows the result and that’s what matters.”
[FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/09/07
By: Sophia Yeh and Y.F. Low

Taipei, Sept. 7 (CNA) Weightlifter Kuo Hsing-chun (郭婞淳) was awarded the Order of

Brilliant Star on Thursday in recognition of her performance at the 2017 Taipei Universiade, at which she broke the world record in the clean and jerk event.

The Order of Brilliant Star, which honors outstanding contributions to national development, was conferred on Kuo by President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文).

At the ceremony, Kuo said the decoration was the highest honor and an acknowledgment of her performance in the sports arena.

She promised to help bring unity to Taiwan society and lift the country’s international profile through sports.

At the Universiade on Aug. 21, Kuo took the lead in the women’s 58 kg weightlifting competition with a snatch of 107 kilograms then nailed a clean and jerk of 142 kg on her final lift of the night to break the world record of 141 kg set by Qiu Hongmei (邱紅梅) of China at the 2007 Asian Weightlifting Championships.    [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Sep 04, 2017
By: Dave Carroll  /  Staff reporter

The Chan sisters on Saturday advanced to the third round of the women’s doubles at

the US Open, but it was not such a good day for fellow Taiwanese Chuang Chia-jung and Lu Yen-hsun at the final Grand Slam of the year in New York.

Second seeds Chan Yung-jan and Martina Hingis took just 56 minutes to oust Jelena Jankovic of Serbia and Anastasija Sevastova of Latvia 6-1, 6-3 on Court 7 at Flushing Meadows.

The Taiwanese-Swiss duo saved two of three break points and converted five of seven, winning 55 of the 91 points contested to advance to a third-round clash with 13th seeds Kristina Mladenovic of France and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia, who rallied from a set down to defeat Chinese duo Wang Qiang and Wang Yafan 3-6, 6-4, 6-0 in 1 hour, 37 minutes. Asked about her partnership with Chan Yung-jan by Swiss daily Der Bund, Hingis replied: “We have fun, do some things together. Recently we were at Niagara Falls. Bonding.”    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/09/02
By: Christie Chen

Taipei, Sept. 2 (CNA) For some athletes, the recently concluded 2017 Taipei Summer

Universiade was a place to celebrate sports, experience culture and make friends.

But for others — such as Turkish taekwondo athletes İrem Yaman and Hatice Kübra İlgün — it was also a place to regroup, seek revenge and prove themselves after defeats in the world championships and other elite events.

“I was very sad after the world championships, but I recovered by winning the gold medal here,” 22-year-old Yaman, who won the gold medal in the women’s -62kg weight division at the Taipei Universiade, told CNA in an interview before leaving Taiwan.

Ranking world no. 1 in her division, Yaman was eliminated in round 32 by Elin Johansson of Sweden at the World Taekwondo Championships in June in South Korea.
[FULL  STORY]

SINGAPORE:With the win, the Taiwanese-Swiss pairing joined Wimbledon champs Elena Vesnina and Ekaterina Makarova in securing berths for next month’s WTA Finals

Taipei Times
Date: Sep 03, 2017
By: Dave Carroll / Staff reporter

Chan Yung-jan on Friday put any worries about jet lag behind her following her gold-

medal-winning performance at the Taipei Summer Universiade as she teamed up with Martina Hingis to cruise into the second round of the women’s doubles at the US Open, while there were also victories for fellow Taiwanese Chan Hao-ching, Hsieh Su-wei and Lu Yen-hsun at Flushing Meadows in New York.
Second seeds Chan Yung-jan and Hingis took just 55 minutes to see off Yulia Putintseva of Kazakhstan and Arina Rodionova of Australia 6-2, 6-2 on Grandstand Court at the final Grand Slam of the year to qualify for the WTA Finals next month.

The Taiwanese-Swiss duo conceded just one break point, while converting five of seven to advance to a second-round clash with Jelena Jankovic of Serbia and Anastasija Sevastova of Latvia.

Chan Yung-jan, who claimed the Universiade doubles title with younger sister Chan Hao-ching in Taipei on Tuesday, thanked her partner after the victory.

“Since the Universiade doesn’t happen every year in my hometown, it would be really special for me to go back to play,” Chan Yung-jan told the WTA Web site.    [FULL  STORY]

Chan defeated Spanish opponents in mixed doubles with Nenad Zimonjic

Taiwan News
Date: 2017/09/01
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Taiwan’s Chan Yung-jan (詹詠然) won her mixed doubles

game with Serbia’s Nenad Zimonjic at the U.S. Open Thursday despite doubts in the Taiwanese media about her health.

Chan, 28, and Zimonjic, 41, defeated Arantxa Parra Santonja and Marc Lopez of Spain in two sets, 6-2 and 6-6, followed by a tiebreaker with a score of 7-2.

Chan has come under fire for giving up on the mixed doubles at the August 19-30 Taipei 2017 Summer Universiade for health reasons, facing accusations that she was more interested in the more prestigious Grand Slam event in New York.

At a celebration for Taiwan’s Universiade athletes in Taipei Thursday, another tennis player held up a picture of Chan on his smartphone in order to pretend she was there at least in spirit.   [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/08/31
By: Sophia Yeh and Romulo Huang

Taipei, Aug. 31 (CNA) President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) promised Thursday to increase

government spending on the sport in Taiwan and said she expected funding to double over the next four years.

Speaking at a meeting with athletes, trainers and officials from the Taiwan team to the just concluded Taipei Universiade at the Presidential Office, Tsai said that during her electoral campaign, she promised to double the government budget for sports development within eight years. She now expects that goal to be achieved in the next four years.

In addition to the annual government budget and the Sports Development Fund managed by the Sports Administration under the Ministry of Education, the special budget for the forward-looking infrastructure development plan will also allocate NT$10 billion (US$331.5 million) to sports related programs over the next four years, the president said.    [FULL  STORY]