Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/07/21
By: Lung Po-an and Evelyn Kao

Taipei, July 21 (CNA) World No. 3 badminton player Chou Tien-chen (周天成) clinched the men's singles title at the Indonesia Open in Jakarta on Sunday, becoming the first Taiwanese to do so.

In a match that lasted only 91 minutes, Chou demolished Anders Antonsen of Denmark 21-18, 24-26, 21-15 to win the title.

It was Chou's first win of the season, his first title in a super 1000 level event, and the first men's singles championship victory by a Taiwanese in the Indonesia Open.    [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Jul 22, 2019
By: Jason Pan  /  Staff reporter

The Philippines’ Mighty Sports-Go For Gold yesterday captured the William Jones Cup by defeating

Taiwan Blue 81-71.

The win took the victors’ winning streak to eight games in the tournament, which wrapped up at New Taipei City’s Sinjhuang Stadium over the weekend.

Power forward Eugene Phelps, a California native, led the Mighty Sports to the 10-point victory.

He put up a double-double of 24 points and 13 rebounds, along with a team high of eight assists, as teammates Mackenzie Moore and Joseph Yeo contributed 16 and 14 points respectively.
[FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/07/20
By: Huang Chiao-wen and Ko Lin

Taipei, July 20 (CNA) Taiwan's Tai Tzu-ying (戴資穎) lost the chance to defend her singles title at the

Indonesia Open in Jakarta on Saturday after she was defeated in the semifinals by Japanese Akane Yamaguchi.

Tai, the top-ranked women's badminton player in the world, never seemed to find her form against Yamaguchi and lost two straight games in just 32 minutes.

In the first game, Tai fell behind early, trailing 10-1, and she finished 9-21 without gaining any steam.

Yamaguchi took an early 7-1 lead in the second game and went on to win 21-15, as Tai still could not find her rhythm.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/07/18
By:  Central News Agency

Taipei (CNA)– The Mighty Sports-Go For Gold Philippines, undefeated so far at the annual Taiwan-

hosted William Jones Cup (Jones Cup) international basketball tournament, expressed their appreciation of Filipino migrant workers in Taiwan for their support Thursday.

The 41st William Jones Cup 2019 kicked off July 12 and is scheduled to run through July 21 in Changhua and New Taipei for the mens event, while the women's competition will be held July 24-28 in New Taipei.

Charles Tiu, head coach of Mighty Sports, which also won every game and took the mens title at the tournament in 2016, said "Every time I come to the Jones Cup, I see many Filipino fans. I know they travel very far to come to support us, and it is really an honor to be able to play for them and to represent them."

The majority of fans that come out to support Filipino teams are migrant workers and according to Ministry of Labor statistics, there were 153,865 Filipino migrant workers in Taiwan as of the end of May.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/07/19
By: Luke Sabatier

Taipei, July 19 (CNA) Taiwan's Chou Tien-chen (周天成) needed a second consecutive marathon battle Friday to remain alive in the men's singles of one of the top badminton tournaments of the year, the Indonesia Open 2019.

The world No. 3, who is seeded fourth in Jakarta, needed 1 hour and 16 minutes — an eternity in badminton — to oust two-time Olympic champion and five-time world champion Lin Dan (林丹) of China in a second-round match Thursday, and he found himself in another epic battle a day later.

Facing sixth-seeded Jonatan Christie of Indonesia, to whom he had lost six of the seven matches they had played, Chou appeared headed for defeat again, dropping the first game 21-16 and falling behind 16-12 in the second game after Christie went on a 9-2 run.

But Chou steeled himself and ran off the next six points to take an 18-16 lead, and held on to even the match.    [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Jul 20, 2019
By: Staff writer, with CNA

After entering this week’s Blibli Indonesian Open in need of a strong showing to retain her top ranking,

Taiwan’s Tai Tzu-ying yesterday pulled off a big win to move a step closer to her goal.

Tai, who had lost five of her previous six matches against Ratchanok Intanon before toppling her in Malaysia in April, outlasted her Thai rival again 21-18, 16-21, 21-12 in a battle that lasted just more than an hour.

Tai appeared to be in trouble in the first game, trailing 11-7 and 17-14, before rattling off seven of the final eight points to gain an early edge.

Ratchanok stepped up the pace a game later, opening a 12-6 lead after an early 5-5 stalemate, and protected her advantage to even the match.

However, Tai in the deciding game jumped out to a 13-6 lead and never let Ratchanok get closer than three points before putting her away.   [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Jul 19, 2019
By: Staff writer, with CNA

Taiwanese Tai Tzu-ying — the world’s No. 1 badminton player — yesterday moved a step closer to

defending her Blibli Indonesia Open single’s title after advancing to the quarter-finals beating Busanan Ongbamrungphan of Thailand in straight sets 21-19, 21-18.

Although Tai lagged behind Busanan 17-19 at one point in the first set in Jakarta, she later picked up steam and scored four points to take the lead 21-19.

In the second set, Tai took an early 3-0 lead, but Busanan edged past her 8-7 and they continued in a close fight until Tai eventually prevailed 21-18.

It was Tai’s fifth consecutive victory against the Thai player.

Tai set up a quarter-final clash with long-term rival Ratchanok Intanon of Thailand, who overcame Indonesia’s young ace Gregoria Mariska Tunjung in three sets.
[FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/07/16
By: Huang Chiao-wen and Ko Lin

Taipei, July 16 (CNA) Taiwanese badminton player Tai Tzu-ying (戴資穎) finished off a strong opening

match against her opponent Tuesday in the women's singles of the 2019 Blibli Indonesia Open, a Super 1000 event on the HSBC BWF World Tour.

Tai, world No. 1 on the Badminton World Federation's (BWF) women's singles rankings since May 3 last year, beat Yeo Jia Min (楊佳敏) of Singapore 21-12, 21-18 in a quick match that lasted only 31 minutes.

She had just competed in the Singapore Open in April, winning the women's singles title against Nozomi Okuhara of Japan. Her other trophy this season also included the Malaysia Open, which took place in the same month.

Tai will next face world No. 23 Busanan Ongbamrungphan of Thailand in the second round of the tournament.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/07/15
By: Flor Wang and Lung Po-an

Taipei, July 15 (CNA) Taiwan ranked the seventh-biggest winner in the just-concluded 2019 Summer

Universiade held in Naples, Italy, scoring nine golds, 13 silvers and 10 bronze medals among the 118 participating countries.

It is the best-ever performance that Taiwan has ever achieved in a Universiade held outside Taiwan.

This year, Taiwan sent 131 youth athletes to the international sports event to compete in 13 categories of the biannual games from July 4-13, the glamorous closing ceremony of which drew an audience of more than 35,000 people.

In 2017, Taipei played host to the 29th summer Universiade, with a record 371 athletes participating.
[FULL  STORY]

Former basketball players to promote youth development, women's leadership in sports

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/07/15
By: Teng Pei-ju, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Two former U.S. professional basketball players, Holly Warlick and Carol

Jue, will visit Taiwan as sports envoys from July 16-22.

Warlick and Jue will take part in a variety of events in Taipei and Kaohsiung, including workshops, discussions, and basketball clinics, said the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) via a press statement issued on Monday (July 15). The aim is to strengthen women’s leadership in sports, foster youth development, and empower women and girls, AIT added.

Warlick is a member of the U.S. Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame. She also played on the U.S. gold medal-winning team at the 1979 R. William Jones Cup in Taipei.

Since joining California's Chapman University as head coach in 2003, Jue has delivered victories for the Panthers in over 70 percent of the team’s games. Jue is the only Chinese-American head basketball coach, male or female, in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA).
[FULL  STORY]