Sports

3 Taiwanese advance to 3rd round of women’s doubles in Australian Open

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/01/23
By: Romulo Huang

Taipei, Jan. 23 (CNA) Taiwanese tennis sisters Chan Yung-jan (詹詠然) and

Chan Hao-ching (詹皓晴) beat the Ukrainian pair of Kateryna Bondarenko and Olga Savchuk in two sets 6-3, 6-3 Saturday to advance to the third-round doubles of the Australian Open.

The second-seeded Chans will take on the British pair of Jocelyn Rae and Anna Smith in the third round of the women’s doubles in the first Grand Slam event of the year.

Meanwhile, another noted Taiwanese tennis player, Hsieh Su-wei (謝淑薇), and her partner Oksana Kalashnikova of Georgia got past the fourth-seeded pair formed by Timea Babos of Hungary and Katarina Srebotnik of Slovenia in three sets 6-3, 4-6, 7-5 in another match of women’s doubles played that day.

The non-seeded Hsieh-Kalashnikova pair will play against their Chinese rivals of Xu Yi-fan and Zheng Saisai in the third round of the competition.      [FULL  STORY]

Sung Ming-yen of Taiwan looks to stretch winning run

Taipei Times
Date: Jan 23, 2016
By: Adrian Hardie / Staff reporter

Taiwanese bantamweight Sung Ming-yen is looking to continue his unbeaten run inside the ONE Championship cage as he girds for battle against Indonesia’s Sunoto in Changsha, China, tonight.

In Sunoto (3-1-0), who will also be fighting his third ONE fight, Sung (4-1-0) is fighting something of an unknown quantity, who likes to switch between southpaw and orthodox stance.

“I have heard a lot about him, but I can’t find many videos of him online,” Sung told the Taipei Times. “I know he is a versatile fighter who is not only good at striking, but also with ground control. He was a featherweight fighter before, but this time he dropped to fight in the bantamweight category, which means he might have a strength advantage over me, but I think we will be a good challenge for me.”      [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan wins silver in Asian Cycling Championships

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/01/22
By: Lee Chin-wei and Y.F. Low

Taipei, Jan. 22 (CNA) Taiwan’s triathlon athlete Chang Ting-ting (張婷婷) won 201601220018t0001a silver medal in the women’s junior road race of the Asian Cycling Championships in Oshima, Japan on Friday.

Chang finished the 71.4-kilometer race in two hours, 13 minutes and nine seconds, but was edged out of first place by Misuzu Shimoyama of Japan in a sprint to the finish line.

On Thursday, Chang clinched a gold medal in the junior time trial event, completing the 11.2-kilometer course in 17 minutes and 15.30 seconds.

Hsieh and Kalashnikova move forward

BUSY DAY:Because of rain delays, Chan Hao-ching is to play two matches today, one with elder sister Chan Yung-jan and one with Max Mirnyi in the mixed doubles

Taipei Times
Date: Jan 23, 2016
By: Dave Carroll / Staff reporter, with AFP, MELBOURNE, Australia

Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced to the third round of the women’s doubles

Serena Williams returns during her Australian Open match against Daria Kasatkina in Melbourne yesterday. Photo: AP

Serena Williams returns during her Australian Open match against Daria Kasatkina in Melbourne yesterday. Photo: AP

on a rain-affected day at the Australian Open yesterday.

Hsieh and Oksana Kalashnikova upset fourth seeds Timea Babos of Hungary and Katarina Srebotnik of Slovenia 6-3, 4-6, 7-5 on Court 6 at Melbourne Park in one of the few matches on the outside courts to survive the rain.

The Taiwanese-Georgian duo saved six of eight break points and converted four of five, winning 107 of the 208 points contested to wrap up the victory in 2 hours, 6 minutes.

With the weather wreaking havoc with the schedule, it promises to be a busy day for Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching today.

She is due to team up with elder sister Chan Yung-jan in the second round of the women’s doubles, with the second seeds taking on Ukrainian duo Kateryna Bondarenko and Olga Savchuk, before partnering Max Mirnyi in the mixed doubles.     [FULL  STORY]

Chan sisters cruise, Hsieh Su-wei bounces back

Taipei Times
Date: Jan 22, 2016
By: Dave Carroll / Staff reporter

The Chan sisters cruised into the second round of the women’s doubles at the Australian Open yesterday, while fellow Taiwanese Hsieh Su-wei bounced back from her defeat to Serena Williams in the singles on Wednesday.

Second seeds Chan Hao-ching and Chan Yung-jan took just 45 minutes to complete a 6-1, 6-1 rout of Denisa Allertova of the Czech Republic and Demi Schuurs of the Netherlands in front of a sizeable crowd of Taiwanese fans on Court 15 at Melbourne Park.

The Taiwanese duo served five aces and won six of 10 break points, winning 52 of the 75 points contested to advance to a second-round clash with Ukrainian pairing Kateryna Bondarenko and Olga Savchuk, who defeated Alize Cornet of France and Magda Linette of Poland 6-4, 6-0.     [FULL  STORY]

Tigers’ Chou Yi-hsiang is named Player of Week

Taipei Times
Date: Jan 21, 2016
By: Paul Huang  /  Contributing reporter

Members of the Basketball Writers’ Association were nearly unanimous on their decision in selecting the Dacin Tigers forward for the weekly honor for the second time in three weeks for his uncanny plays in crunch time to lead his team to a pair of back-to-back wins.

It was Chou’s long three-pointer with 48 seconds remaining in the game that gave the Tigers the lead for good against a ferocious Kinmen Kaoliang squad that nearly pulled off the upset on Thursday evening last week.

And to top that three on a 19-point effort, Chou treated the fans with an even closer play by saving himself for the game-winning tip-in with 1.4 second left on the clock against second-ranked Taiwan Beer the next evening to hand deliver the 64-63 victory.     [FULL  STORY]

Four Taiwanese defeated at Australian Open

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/01/20
By: Lee Yu-cheng and Lee Hsin-Yin

Taipei, Jan. 20 (CNA) Wednesday was not the day for Taiwanese tennis

Chuang Chia-jung (front) and her partner Olga Govortsova in a 2013 match.

Chuang Chia-jung (front) and her partner Olga Govortsova in a 2013 match.

players in the Australian Open, as four of them lost their matches.

It started with Hsieh Su-wei (謝淑薇), the only Taiwanese player in the singles draw at the Australian Open this year, who lost her second round singles match to world No. 1 Serena Williams 6-1, 6-2.

After the loss by Hsieh, currently ranked 90th in the world in singles, three other Taiwanese players fell in doubles matches.

Chuang Chia-jung (莊佳容) of Taiwan and her partner, Olga Govortsova of Belarus, were beaten 7-6 (8-6), 6-4 by Julia Goerges and Karolina Pliskova in the women’s doubles.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei falls to Serena Williams

NOT TAIWAN’S DAY:Hsieh’s compatriots Chuang Chia-jung, Hsieh Cheng-peng and Yang Tsung-hua lost doubles matches, while Lu Yen-hsun injured his elbow

Taipei Times
Date:  Jan 21, 2016
By: Staff writer, with CNA and AFP,MELBOURNE

Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei may be a wily veteran with a deep bag of tricks,

Hsieh Su-wei of Taiwan in action against Serena Williams of the US during their second-round match at the Australian Open in Melbourne yesterday. Photo: EPA

Hsieh Su-wei of Taiwan in action against Serena Williams of the US during their second-round match at the Australian Open in Melbourne yesterday. Photo: EPA

but her unusual array of two-handed shots and changes of pace were little match for the power of world No. 1 Serena Williams at the first Grand Slam event of the year yesterday.

Hsieh, the only Taiwanese player in either the men’s or women’s singles draw at the Australian Open this year, lost her second round singles match to Williams 6-1, 6-2 in exactly an hour.

Williams hit 26 winners to just nine for Hsieh and won 85 percent of the points when she got her first serve in, compared to only 39 percent for Hsieh.

The Taiwanese veteran, who turned 30 on Jan. 4, is known for playing wide-angled shots at different speeds and keeping opponents on the move, but she was not precise enough when she had opportunities to put Williams under pressure.     [FULL  STORY]

Former Taiwan coach to assist at Sunwolves

Taipei Times
Date: Jan 20, 2016
By: AFP, WELLINGTON

Former All Blacks Nathan Mauger and Filo Tiatia announced yesterday that they are joining the coaching ranks of Japan’s Sunwolves less than six weeks before the fledgling side makes its Super Rugby debut.

Mauger is to coach the backs and Tiatia the forwards under head coach Mark Hammett, another former All Black.

The Sunwolves appear to be several weeks behind other sides in their preparations. Most teams began pre-season training with a full complement of coaching staff well before Christmas.      [FULL  STORY]

Jeremy Lin has most ‘entertaining hairdo’ in NBA: website

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/01/18
By: Elizabeth Hsu

Taipei, Jan. 18 (CNA) Taiwanese-American NBA player Jeremy Lin (林書豪)

CNA file photo

CNA file photo

knows the trick to impressing and entertaining fans at the arena — using loads of hairspray.

That’s the opinion of Gerald Bourguet in an article for the U.S.-based FanSided website that ranked the Charlotte Hornets point guard’s hair style as No. 1 among the NBA’s “10 Most Outrageously Entertaining Hairdos.”

Bourguet said Lin got extra points for variety, including “unforgettable hairstyles this season.”

Describing Lin as a global icon for Chinese basketball players, Bourguet said the 27-year-old is having one of the best seasons of his NBA career since emerging on the big stage with the “Linsanity” craze in 2012.     [FULL  STORY]