TEEN SENSATION: Cori Gauff said that she had not allowed her admiration of childhood idol and five-time champion Venus Williams to affect her play

Taipei Times
Date: Jul 03, 2019
By: Dave Carroll  /  Staff reporter, with AFP, LONDON

Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei on Monday cruised into the second round of the women’s singles at

Wimbledon, while Cori Gauff, at 15 the youngest-ever qualifier for the tournament, stunned five-time champion Venus Williams.

Hsieh, the 28th seed, took just 67 minutes to outfox former French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko 6-2, 6-2 on Court 18.

The Taiwanese veteran, who provided the upset of last year’s tournament when she ousted Simona Halep, saved one of three break points and converted six of 14, while taking advantage of her opponent’s 35 unforced errors to knock out last year’s semi-finalist from Latvia.

Hsieh next faces another former Wimbledon semi-finalist, Kirsten Flipkens of Belgium, who defeated DalilaJakupovic of Slovenia 6-1, 6-3 in 62 minutes on Court 7.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/06/30
By: Lung Po-an and Evelyn Kao

Taipei, June 30 (CNA) Taiwanese sisters Latisha Chan (詹詠然) and Chan Hao-ching (詹皓晴) won the

women's doubles Saturday at the 2019 Nature Valley International in Eastbourne, England.

The duo defeated Kirsten Flipkens of Belgium and Bethanie Mattek-Sands of the United States 2-6, 6-3, 10-6 in the final to take home the title for the first time since 2014. This was also the sisters' 13th doubles title.

During Saturday's match, the Chan sisters got off to a slow start in the first set, which they lost 2-6. However, they managed to stage a comeback, beating the Belgium-U.S. duo 6-3 in the second set and forcing a super tiebreak.    [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date:  Jul 01, 2019
By: Staff writer, with CNA

The Lamigo Monkeys’ Chu Yu-hsien on Saturday broke a 30-year Chinese Professional Baseball

League (CPBL) record for half-season home runs after hitting two and pushing the grand total to 22.

The 27-year-old first baseman hit a three-run homer in the third inning and a two-run homer in the eighth inning to lead the Monkeys to an 11-4 win over hosts the Fubon Guardians at New Taipei City’s Xinzhuang Stadium.

Monkeys manager Hong I-chung called Chu’s performance “monstrous,” while Chu said that he hoped to maintain the momentum in the season’s second half.

The previous record of 21 home runs in a half-season was set in 1996 by Denio Gonzalez of the Dominican Republic, who played for the now-disbanded China Times Eagles.    [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Jun 27, 2019
By: Jason Pan  /  Staff reporter

The Lamigo Monkeys on Tuesday mounted a late rally to seize a narrow one-run win in Tainan, then

had to wait for the result of another game before they were crowned first-half champions.

After their game, Lamigo headed to the locker room and their fans remained in the stands for more than an hour to watch the other CPBL contest between the Fubon Guardians and Brothers Baseball Club in Taichung, which finished at 11:30pm.

“It is a big relief,” Lamigo Monkeys manager Hong Yi-chung said after the game. “The pressure is off and we can all relax now.”

Fans and commentators said that it was the most unusual and least exciting way in CPBL history that a team has celebrated winning the half-season title.    [FULL  STORY]

WINNING START: Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei outlasted world No. 41 Camila Giorgi 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 in a first-round tussle lasting 2 hours, 13 minutes on the English south coast

Taipei Times
Date: Jun 26, 2019
By: Dave Carroll  /  Staff reporter, with Reuters, EASTBOURNE, England

Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei on Monday battled into the second round of the Nature Valley International

on the grass courts in Eastbourne, England, while second seed Karolina Pliskova was just happy not to have her twin sister on the other side of the net as she also made a winning start.

Hsieh outlasted world No. 41 Camila Giorgi 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 in a first-round tussle that lasted 2 hours, 13 minutes on the English south coast.

The world No. 29 saved two of seven break points and converted seven of 18, taking advantage of her opponent’s 16 double faults to even her career record against the Italian to 1-1 after she lost their only previous encounter at the US Open in 2013.

The Taiwanese 33-year-old was next due to face another tough task against world No. 7 Simona Halep, who she defeated at Wimbledon last year.    [FULL  STORY]

THIRD SUCCESS: Hsieh Su-wei and Barbora Strycova added the Birmingham title to their victories in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, in February and Madrid last month

Taipei Times
Date: Jun 25, 2019
By: Dave Carroll  /  Staff reporter, with Reuters

Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei on Sunday claimed her third doubles title of the season at the Nature Valley

Classic in Birmingham, England, while Ashleigh Barty became the first Australian in 43 years to climb to the top of the world rankings after she won the singles title

Second seeds Hsieh and Barbora Strycova outlasted fourth seeds Anna-Lena Groenefeld and Demi Schuurs 6-4, 6-7 (4/7), 10-8 in 1 hour, 49 minutes in a rain-interrupted doubles final that had to be completed indoors.

The Taiwanese-Czech duo saved five of nine break points and converted five of 13, winning 54 percent of points on their second serve to add the Birmingham title to their victories in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, in February and Madrid last month.

The victory improved their career record over the German-Dutch duo to 2-0 after a straight-sets quarter-final victory on their way to the title in Dubai.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/06/23
By: Joseph Yeh

Taipei, June 23 (CNA) Taiwanese catcher Lyle Lin (林家正) signed with the Arizona Diamondbacks on

Sunday, becoming the first Taiwan player to join a Major League Baseball (MLB) team via the annual draft.

Lin, 21, a junior at Arizona State University, said in a Facebook post that the deal was signed at the D-Backs spring training base in Phoenix, Arizona, and he will be joining the D-Backs minor league team in its current season.

"This (signing of a contract) is just one step in my baseball career, as a long road of hard and solid training sessions awaits me," Lin said in his post.

Lin was selected by the D-Backs in the 14th round of the MLB's 2019 draft this month.
[FULL  STORY]

SEEDS SENT PACKING: Russia’s Margarita Gasparyan also pulled off an upset in the opening contest of the day in Birmingham, beating fourth seed Elina Svitolina

Taipei Times
Date: Jun 19, 2019
By: Dave Carroll  /  Staff reporter, with AFP, LONDON

Unseeded Hsieh Su-wei on Monday pulled off another upset at the Nature Valley Classic in Birmingham as

the Taiwanese world No. 28 stunned world No. 10 Aryna Sabalenka in the first round of the singles.

Hsieh outlasted the Belarussian fifth seed 6-3, 2-6, 7-6 (7/1) on the grass courts at Edgbaston Priory Club in 1 hour, 56 minutes in England’s second city.

The Taiwanese saved one of four break points and converted three of six, winning 71 percent of points on her first serve to claim her fourth victory over a top-10 player this season and the seventh of her career.

“It was not easy because it’s my first match on the grass court. I knew it was going to be really tough, so I just got ready for anything to happen on the court,” Hsieh told the WTA Web site. “It’s not easy because you know she can make any winner from anywhere; serve, return, baseline. She was slicing pretty good. I was surprised. I [said]: ‘OK, I cannot do stable and try to play my stuff,’ so I was doing very good to keep concentrated on my game.”    [FULL  STORY]