Taipei Times
Date:  Sep 07, 2015
By: Grant Dexter  /  Staff reporter

A sound defeat in their Asian Rugby Sevens Series Bowl semi-final against the

United Arab Emirates (UAE) left Taiwan in a scrap to avoid last place at the Qingdao Tiantai Stadium in China yesterday, a challenge that also proved too much for them.

Japan and China, Taiwan’s pool opponents, played in the men’s Cup final, with Japan beating China 28-12, though China were in contention well into the second half.

Taiwan were beaten by the UAE 24-12 in the morning, scoring two tries — by Huang Po-wei and Tsai Cheng-hsuan — to the UAE’s four from a brace by Ian Overton, as well as tries to Christopher Marshall and Mogamat Kenny.

Huang kicked one conversion.     [FULL  STORY]

BUSINESS AS USUAL:World No. 2 Roger Federer cruised to a straight-sets victory over Philipp Kohlschreiber to reach the fourth round of the US Open for the 15th year

Taipei Times
Date: , Sep 07, 2015
By: Dave Carroll  /  Staff reporter, with AFP, NEW YORK

Chan Yung-jan and Hsieh Su-wei set up a Taiwanese showdown in the quarter-

finals of the mixed doubles at the US Open on Saturday, while their compatriot -Chuang Chia-jung crashed out of the second round of the women’s doubles at Flushing Meadows in New York.

On Court 7 at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, second seeds Chan and Rohan Bopanna rallied from a set down to oust Alla Kudryavtseva of Russia and Alexander Peya of Austria 3-6, 6-3, 10-8 in the second round of the mixed doubles.

The Taiwanese-Indian duo failed to save the only break point they faced, but converted one of three, winning 60 of the 114 points contested in 1 hour, 1 minute.     [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date:  Sep 06, 2015
By: Paul Huang  /  Contributing reporter

Taiwan rallied from as many as 15 down in the second half, nailing a 36-point

fourth to top New Zealand 86-84 at the Sinjhuang Sports Complex in New Taipei City last night to improve to a 5-2 mark in this year’s William Jones Cup International Basketball Tournament.

Quincy Davis’ put-back basket off a Lin “the Beast” Chih-chieh miss with the time expiring broke an 84-84 tie to give Taiwan an emotional win.

“We worked too hard to lose the game in the end,” an excited Davis said after the game.

His timely bucket avoided what would have been an embarrassing defeat for the hosts, who managed to score only 32 points in a very disappointing first half, digging a hole nearly too deep for them to overcome.     [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date:  Sep 06, 2015
By: Paul Huang  /  Contributing reporter

The second-placed Uni-President Lions evened their three-game series against

the Lamigo Monkeys at one win apiece with a 5-3 triumph on the road over their archrivals at the Taoyuan International Baseball Stadium last night.

The victory also brought the Cats to within 2-1/2 games of the top-ranked Chinatrust Brothers, who lost their contest against the EDA Rhinos to miss an opportunity to add to their lead.

Liu Fu-hao’s two-run blast off Lamigo starter Cesar Valdez jumpstarted a sluggish Lion offense that was held scoreless after four innings to turn a 0-1 deficit into a 2-1 advantage in the top of the fifth.     [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date:  Sep 06, 2015
By: Grant Dexter  /  Staff reporter, with info elite step asia

Taiwan were on the receiving end of a pair of hidings in China yesterday,

opening their Asia Rugby Sevens Series campaign with a 50-0 loss against Japan and a 37-5 drubbing from the hosts.

The weekend tournament in Qingdao saw Taiwan drawn in Group C with Japan and China, whose match-up resulted in an 21-7 victory for the visitors, who booked themselves a place in today’s Cup competition.

Taiwan’s results saw them into the Bowl division, in which they face the United Arab Emirates at 12:11pm today.

Against Japan, Taiwan let through Jamie Henry and Teruya Goto for a brace each, while Dai Ozawa, Haruki Saito, Masakatsu Hikosaka and Shohei Toyoshima also dotted down in an eight-try steam-rolling.     [FULL  STORY]

RAGING RAFA:Eighth seed Rafael Nadal of Spain was beaten by 32nd seed Fabio Fognini of Italy, marking his first-ever Grand Slam defeat when leading by two sets

Taipei Times
Date:  Sep 06, 2015
By: Dave Carroll  /  Staff reporter, with AFP, NEW YORK

Taiwan’s Chan Yung-jan was a two-time winner at the US Open on Friday, while

Hsieh Su-wei saw her bid for women’s doubles glory ended at the final Grand Slam of the season taking place at Flushing Meadows in New York.

On Court 10 at the at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, Taiwanese sisters Chan Hao-ching and Chan Yung-jan cruised into the third round of the women’s doubles with a comfortable 6-2, 6-4 victory over German duo Mona Barthel and Laura Siegemund in 1 hour, 18 minutes.

The ninth seeds saved eight of 11 break points and converted six of 11, winning 68 of the 117 points contested to set up a third-round clash with Romanian pairing Irina-Camelia Begu and Raluca Olaru, who upset eighth-seeded Spanish duo Garbine Muguruza and Carla Suarez Navarro 7-5, 6-4.     [FULL  STORY]

TAIWANESE JOY:Hsieh Su-wei advanced in both the women’s and mixed doubles, while Chuang Chia-jung was also victorious at Flushing Meadows in New York

Taipei Times
Date: Sep 05, 2015
By: Dave Carroll  /  Staff reporter, with AFP, NEW YORK

Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei was a two-time winner at the US Open on Thursday, while

Chuang Chia-jung made it a clean sweep for Taiwanese competing in Flushing Meadows, New York.

Hsieh made two visits to Court 12 at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, first alongside Anastasia Rodionova in the first round of the women’s doubles.     [FULL  STORY]

Taipei 9Times
Date:  Sep 04, 2015
By: Staff writer, with Reuters

Taiwan remain rooted to the bottom of Group F in Asian qualifying for the FIFA

2018 World Cup after a 5-1 defeat to Iraq in Tehran yesterday.

Group favorites Iraq, playing their home match at the PAS Stadium in the Iranian capital, took the lead through Ali Adnan after 37 minutes. Ali Hosni Faisal added a second after 59 minutes, before Ahmed Yasin, Younis Mahmoud and Justin Meram wrapped up the scoring to put Iraq second in the group.

Wen Chih-hau scored Taiwan’s consolation in the 86th minute.

Taiwan, who have lost both their qualifiers so far, will be bidding to get off the mark against Vietnam at the Taipei Municipal Stadium at 7pm on Tuesday, while Iraq travel to take on Group F leaders Thailand.     [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date:  Sep 04, 2015
By: Paul Huang  /  Contributing reporter

The second-placed Uni-President Lions made up some ground in the standings

with a 5-4 win over the top-ranked Chinatrust Brothers on Tuesday.

The victory not only kept the deficit between the two squads to 2.5 games as the race for the second-half title heats up, but also breathed new life into a Lions team who had lost four of their previous five, establishing some much-needed confidence among the players.

“It was a big win for us given our sub-par performance in the past two weeks, and now we must build on it,” Chang “OEO” Tai-shan said after the win.

The veteran slugger and expected future Hall-of-Famer has made the most of his return to the Lions starting lineup as a designated hitter after spending much of the summer in the minor leagues to tweak his swing, going 18-for-45 (.400) last month.     [FULL  STORY]