DREAM COME TRUE: In Auckland, Amanda Anisimova outlasted Eugenie Bouchard to advance and make real her ‘biggest wish’ to play against Serena Williams

Taipei Times
Date:  Jan 11, 2020
By: Dave Carroll  /  Staff reporter, with AFP, BRISBANE, Australia

Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Barbora Strycova yesterday overcame a rocky start to advance to the

semi-finals of the doubles at the Brisbane International with a 7-5, 6-4 victory over Lucie Hradecka and Andreja Klepac in 1 hour, 20 minutes at the Queensland Tennis Centre.

The top seeds, ranked No. 4 and No. 1 in the world, saved four of seven break points and converted five of 13, winning 50 percent of their first-return points against the unseeded Czech-Slovenian duo in their first meeting on the tour after the Taiwanese-Czech pairing had to withdraw due to injury when they were scheduled to face off in the quarter-finals in Cincinnati, Ohio, last year.

In today’s semi-final, the top seeds face unseeded Lyudmyla Kichenok of Ukraine and Yang Zhaoxuan of China, who battled past Darija Jurak of Croatia and Alicja Rosolska of Poland 6-2, 4-6, 11-9 in their quarter-final on Thursday.

The winners face Ashleigh Barty, the Australian world No. 1 in the singles, and Kiki Bertens in the final after the Dutch player revealed news of their semi-final opponents — Ajla Tomljanovic of Australia and Kristina Mladenovic of France — withdrawing following her second-round singles win over Estonia’s Anett Kontaveit on Thursday night.    [FULL  STORY]

Chuang Chih-yuan said last year he was quitting national team, but has changed mind

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/01/09
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan’s table tennis veteran Chuang Chih-yuan (莊智淵) has agreed to participate in a Tokyo 2020 Olympics qualifying event on Jan. 22, after previously announcing to he would not take part, CNA reported on Tuesday (Jan. 9).

Chuang's participation was also confirmed by the International Table Tennis Federation's (ITTF) website. This revealed that Chuang is on the list of players participating in the Olympics, the news agency said.

Chuang, who has participated in the Summer Olympic Games four times, caught Taiwan’s sport authorities off guard by announcing on Facebook in September last year he was quitting the national team. This automatically meant he would be giving up his right to participate in the Olympic qualification rounds.

However, both the Sports Administration and the China Taipei Table Tennis Association tried hard to convince him to change his mind and take part, according to CNA. Chuang is now set to join four other Taiwanese male table tennis aces to form a national team.    [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Jan 09, 2020
By: Dave Carroll  /  Staff reporter, with AFP, BRISBANE, Australia

Reigning Wimbledon champions Hsieh Su-wei and Barbora Strycova yesterday began their season with

a victory in the first round of the doubles at the Brisbane International, while in the singles eighth seed Madison Keys led a trio of Americans through to the quarter-finals.

Taiwan’s Hsieh bounced back from a 6-4, 6-1 defeat to Anett Kontaveit of Estonia in the first round of the singles on Tuesday by teaming up with her Czech partner and defeating Australian duo Priscilla Hon and Storm Sanders 6-3, 6-4 in 68 minutes at the Queensland Tennis Centre.

The top seeds saved two of three break points and converted three of eight, winning 81 percent of their points on first service to advance to the quarter-finals of the opening tournament of the year.

World No. 4 Hsieh and world No. 1 Strycova, who claimed four doubles titles last season — Dubai, United Arab Emirates; Madrid; Birmingham and Wimbledon, England — next face unseeded Lucie Hradecka of the Czech Republic and Andreja Klepac of Slovenia, who cruised to a 6-2, 6-2 victory over Anastasija Sevastova of Latvia and Sloane Stephens of the US in 56 minutes.
[FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Jan 07, 2020
By: Dave Carroll  /  Staff reporter

Taiwanese third seeds Chan Hao-ching and Latisha Chan yesterday suffered a disappointing start to the

season at the Brisbane International, falling to a 6-3, 3-6, 10-7 first-round defeat to Karolina Pliskova and Donna Vekic in 1 hour, 18 minutes.

The Chan sisters, who claimed four doubles titles last season — Hobart, Australia; Doha; Eastbourne, England; and Osaka, Japan — saved 10 of 13 break points and won three of six, but were let down by a second service on which they only won 37 percent of their points as they exited on the opening day of their season.

The Taiwanese sisters will be hoping to get back in the groove next week when they return to Hobart as the defending champions in a field that is set to feature two former world No. 1s — Latisha Chan and Sania Mirza — as well as reigning Australian Open women’s doubles champion Zhang Shuai of China.    [FULL  STORY]

Focuz Taiwan
Date: 2020/01/05
By: William Yen

Taipei, Jan. 5 (CNA) The Formosa Dreamers put an end to a losing streak with a dramatic turnaround victory against the visiting Singapore Slingers in Changhua City Sunday in the ASEAN Basketball League (ABL).

The Dreamers toppled the Slingers 88-77 to snap their two-game losing streak in the league, after suffering defeats against the Taipei Fubon Braves on Friday and the San Miguel Alab Pilipinas of the Philippines in December.

After the away loss to the Braves two days earlier, the Dreamers started off Sunday by making use of their home court advantage, with back-to-back buckets in the paint by U.S. imports — forward Jerran Young and center Jordan Tolbert — who dominated the boards in the first half.

However, the Slingers, who were also defeated a day earlier by the Braves, answered back with U.S. import guard Marcus Ryan Elliott, who found his mark from downtown in the first half to give his team a slight edge 43-38 over the Dreamers at the half time whistle.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2020/01/04
By: William Yen

Taipei, Jan. 4 (CNA) The Taipei Fubon Braves fended off a strong challenge from the Singapore Slingers Saturday before pulling away in the last quarter to defeat the visitors 83-77 in the ASEAN Basketball League (ABL).

After their home victory a day earlier against the Formosa Dreamers at the Taipei Heping Basketball Gymnasium, the Braves were in front for most of the game before the Slingers edged in a one-point lead to make the score 60-61 at the end of the third quarter.

The Braves fought back with big rebounds and baskets by U.S. imports Charles Garcia and Maxie Esho, who delighted the crowd with a series of ally-oops and deep assists.

The fear of a Singapore victory was finally put to rest by backcourt veteran, Taiwan national team guard Hung Chih-shan (洪志善), who delivered back-to-back three-pointers to take the Braves to an 11-point lead.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/12/19
By: Flor Wang and Huang Chiao-wen

Taipei, Dec. 19 (CNA) Weightlifter Kuo Hsing-chun (郭婞淳) received the 2019 Sports Elite Award for

best female athlete Thursday, making her the only athlete to have won the honor three times.

Kuo, who beat badminton star Tai Tzu-ying (戴資穎) to win the award, previously received the honor in 2013 and 2017.

Kuo, who donned a red outfit and was invited by the Sports Administration to present the award, was surprised by the accolade, saying although she did not expect to win she was happy her efforts in weightlifting were recognized.

Kuo said she hopes to win medals at the Tokyo Olympics next year.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/12/17
By: Hsieh Ching-wen and Joseph Yeh

Taipei, Dec. 17 (CNA) Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten on Tuesday announced "Rakuten Monkeys" as the new name of the Lamigo Monkeys, a Taiwanese professional baseball team, three months after acquiring the Taoyuan-based team from La New International Corp.

Speaking at a press event in Taipei, Hiroshi Mikitani, founder, chairman and CEO of Rakuten, said he was "thrilled" to unveil the new team name and is ready to bring his group's experience of professional baseball in Japan to Taiwan.

"Rakuten's strong commitment to sports partnerships originated with baseball in Japan and we are very excited about this opportunity to contribute to the growth and ongoing success of professional baseball in Taiwan," Mikitani said.

"Our collaboration with the newly rebranded Rakuten Monkeys also sets the stage to connect with more customers in Taiwan through our expanding Rakuten services, including e-commerce, travel, digital content and soon to be launched online banking," he added.    [FULL  STORY]

WOODS TRIUMPHS: Taiwan’s C.T. Pan made Matt Kuchar work hard, winning three straight holes to trim his deficit, but the loss set the US well on their way to the Cup

Taipei Times
Date: Dec 16, 2019
By: AFP, MELBOURNE, Australia

Taiwans C.T. Pan was beaten yesterday as Tiger Woods’ US produced a stunning turnaround to

deny the Internationals a first Presidents Cup in 21 years, dominating the singles on a tense final day that went to the wire at Royal Melbourne.

Veteran Matt Kuchar was the hero, with his winning putt on the 17th in the penultimate match enough to ensure victory, sparking wild celebrations from playing-captain Woods, who set the tone by getting the first point on the board.

Patrick Reed’s caddie was banned after shoving a fan on Saturday as tensions boiled over following the controversial American’s penalty for improving his lie in the Bahamas last week.

The former Masters champion turned to his swing coach to carry his bag and raced to six-up through seven holes against Pan in front of taunting fans before closing out a 4 and 2 win.
[FULL  STORY]

Marathon attracted more than 28,000 domestic and foreign runners, a new record for event

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/12/15
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Kenyan runner Kenneth Mburu Mungara won the 2019 Taipei Marathon men's division on Sunday (Dec. 15) with a time of 2 hours, 14 minutes and 54 seconds; while the female champion, Kenyan Antonina Kwambai, came in at 2 hours, 31 minutes and 27 seconds, according to the event's race results published on its website.

The fastest Taiwanese runner was Chiang Chieh-wen (蔣介文), who won the 2019 National Games' male marathon in October, and finished in 2 hours, 28 minutes and 35 seconds, winning the event’s domestic category for the fourth time. Meanwhile, Chu Ying-ying (朱盈穎), who was the champion in women's domestic category in 2017, won the women’s contest with a time of 3 hours, 4 minutes and 38 seconds.

The marathon, which started 6:30 a.m. at Taipei City Hall, attracted more than 28,000 domestic and foreign runners, a new record for the event, according to CNA. This year’s running route included several historic sites to give runners a feel of ancient Taipei, the news agency said, adding the event organizer modified this year's route to reduce the number of slopes and sharp turns and improve times.    [FULL  STORY]