UPPER HAND? Hsieh Su-wei and Barbora Strycova have a 1-0 record against the Chan sisters after a round-of-16 victory in Indian Wells, California, last year

Taipei Times
Date: Feb 23, 2019
By: Dave Carroll  /  Staff reporter, with AFP, DUBAI, United Arab Emirates

Hsieh Su-wei on Thursday followed up her giant-killing heroics in the Dubai Duty Free Tennis

Championships singles by advancing to the semi-finals of the doubles, where she was facing a showdown against fellow Taiwanese Chan Hao-ching and Latisha Chan.

Third seeds Hsieh and Barbora Strycova defeated eighth seeds Anna-Lena Groenefeld of Germany and Demi Schuurs of the Netherlands 6-2, 6-4 in the quarter-finals of the doubles in 68 minutes.

The Taiwanese-Czech duo saved one of three break points and converted five of 13, winning 57 percent of their first-return points to advance to a semi-final against the ninth-seeded Chan sisters, who needed 1 hour, 26 minutes to see of the challenge of Darija Jurak of Croatia and Raluca Olaru of Romania 6-4, 7-5 in their quarter-final.

The Chan sisters saved five of eight break points and converted five of 11, winning 78 percent of points on their first service to set up the Taiwanese showdown.    [FULL  STORY]

Wei, 15, also broke the national record in the junior high boys’ 100 dash, with 10.77 seconds

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/02/21
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – A junior high school student clocked 21.65 seconds in the 200- meter dash final at the 2019 Kaohsiung Cup Games (高雄港都盃田徑錦標賽) on Thursday, shattering the national record in the junior high boys’ 200-meter dash category.

On Thursday Wei Hao-lun (魏浩倫) of Sinhua Junior High School in Tainan City surpassed the 21.86 seconds Wang Yan-he (王彥和) clocked in 2017, becoming Taiwan’s new fastest junior high school student. Wang, who is a high school student now, also did very well at the sports meet, finishing a preliminary 200-meter dash in 21.58 seconds.

Wei, 15, also broke the national record in the junior high boys’ 100 dash at the same sports meet in Kaohsiung earlier this week, with 10.77 seconds.    [FULL  STORY]

DOUBLE LOSS: In France, Hsieh Cheng-peng crashed out of the men’s doubles at the Open 13 Provence just days after his girlfriend was run over by a bus in Taipei

Taipei Times
Date: Feb 22, 2019
By: Dave Carroll  /  Staff reporter

Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei yesterday stunned another former world No. 1 to advance to the semi-finals of the

Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, the world No. 31’s second semi-final of this year.

Hsieh overcame a second-set rally by Czech fourth seed Karolina Pliskova and fought back from 5-1 down in the third set to complete a 6-4, 1-6, 7-5 victory in 1 hour, 59 minutes on Center Court at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Stadium.

Pliskova fired down nine aces, but the Taiwanese No. 1 saved nine of 13 break points and converted four of eight, winning 67 percent of points on her first serve to give her a 1-1 career record against Pliskova following a 6-4, 1-6, 7-6 (7/4) defeat in Miami last year.

“[Pliskova] serves really big,” Hsieh said after the victory. “She makes ace almost every game. It was not easy to come back.”

“I say [to] myself: ‘OK, if she [does] not ace me, I hit [the] ball, hit so much harder than before, then she cannot hit a winner,’” Hsieh added.    [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Feb 21, 2019
By: Dave Carroll  /  Staff reporter

Hsieh Su-wei yesterday stunned German fifth seed Angelique Kerber to advance to the quarter-finals of

the singles at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, while second seed Petra Kvitova and third seed Simona Halep also advanced in the United Arab Emirates.

World No. 31 Hsieh rallied from a set down to overcome the world No. 7 5-7, 6-4, 6-0 in 1 hour, 44 minutes.

The Taiwanese saved two of six break points and converted seven of 14 to record her first career victory over the German following defeats in Madrid in 2013 and at the Australian Open last year.

It was Hsieh’s first victory over a top-10 player since stunning then-world No. 1 Halep at Wimbledon last year.    [FULL  STORY]

SO EASY:Hsieh Su-wei beat Belarus’ Aliaksandra Sasnovich in 68 minutes, while the Chan sisters beat India’s Prarthana Thombare and the Netherlands’ Eva Wacanno in 55 minutes

Taipei Times
Date: Feb 20, 2019
By: Dave Carroll  /  Staff reporter, with AFP, DUBAI, United Arab Emirates

Hsieh Su-wei yesterday cruised into the third round of the singles at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis

Championships, while fellow Taiwanese Chan Hao-ching and Latisha Chan on Monday advanced to the second round of the doubles in the United Arab Emirates.

Taiwanese No. 1 Hsieh took just 68 minutes to complete a 6-1, 6-2 victory over world No. 33 Aliaksandra Sasnovich.

The world No. 31 saved all four break points she faced and converted four of 11, taking advantage of the Belarussian’s five double faults and winning 64 percent of points on her second serve to advance to the third round.

The victory improved Hsieh’s career record over Sasnovich to 3-0, including a 6-2, 6-0 victory at the Qatar Open last week.
[FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Feb 19, 2019
By: Dave Carroll  /  Staff reporter, with Reuters

Taiwanese No. 1 Hsieh Su-wei on Sunday pulled off a shock victory over 10th seed Anastasija Sevastova

in the first round of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, while Russia’s Daria Kasatkina had to rally from a break down in the deciding set to advance to the second round.

World No. 31 Hsieh saved three of four break points and converted four of 12 in her 6-4, 6-2 win over the Latvian world No. 11.

Hsieh fired down one ace and won 68 percent of points on her first service in 70 minutes to advance to a second-round clash with Aliaksandra Sasnovich, who fought back from a disastrous start to defeat Ekaterina Makrova of Russia 0-6, 7-5, 6-4.

The Taiwanese has a 2-0 career record against the Belarussian after beating her in Doha last week and in Tokyo in 2017.    [FULL  STORY]

The athlete recently traveled to the U.S. to train

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/02/17
By: Ryan Drillsma, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan’s “fastest man” Yang Chun-Han (楊俊瀚) set a new indoor

200 meter sprint national record on Sunday—but his time unfortunately will not count.

CNA reports Yang, who holds the 100 meter and 200 meter national records, was invited Sunday to compete in several U.S. JDL DMR indoor track and field events, where he not only swept the 60 meter and 200 meter sprints, but also beat his own 200 meter record of 21.82 seconds by 0.16 seconds.

The athlete traveled to the U.S. for training just before the turn of the new year, and used time in-between events to work on improving his record times. Yang took gold in the competition 60 meter sprint with a time of 6.73 seconds.

Unfortunately, although Yang’s 200 meter result of 21.66 seconds beat the national indoor track and field 200 meter world record of 21.82, set by Chen Tian-wen (陳天文) in 1999, it was not recognized by the Chinese Taipei Athletics Association. Secretary-General of the association Cheng Shih-chung (鄭世忠) said it is because the track on which he achieved the record does not meet international standards.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/02/17
By: Lung Po-an and Evelyn Kao

Taipei, Feb. 17 (CNA) Taiwanese golfer Hsu Wei-ling (徐薇淩) finished in third place at the

2019 ISPS Handa Women’s Australian Open Sunday with a four-round 12-under par 276.

Hsu shot five birdies and a bogey to finish with a four-under par 68 for the final round Sunday.

However, Nelly Korda of the United States posted a five-under par 67 in perfect conditions in the final round to win the title with a 17-under par 271.

Hsu and Sweden’s Madelene Sagstrom shared the lead for the first two days of the event Friday.    [FULL  STORY]

RACKING THEM UP: This victory marked the Chan sisters’ second women’s doubles title of this season and the 14th women’s doubles championship of their career

Taipei Times
Date: Feb 18, 2019
By: Staff writer, with CNA

Taiwan’s Latisha Chan and Chan Hao-ching clinched the women’s doubles title at the

Qatar Open in Doha on Saturday, defeating Anna-Lena Groenefeld of Germany and Demi Schuurs of the Netherlands 2-1.

The Chan sisters eased through the first set against their fourth-seeded rivals 6-1.

In the second set, Groenefeld and Schuurs put up more of a fight and topped the Taiwanese duo 3-6, forcing a super tie-break.

The sisters eventually won the super tie-break 10-6 to claim the women’s doubles title.    [FULL  STORY]

COMEBACK QUEEN: Simona Halep seemed certain to miss out on a 34th career final when she was down 1-4 in the third set, but rallied to take the next five games

Taipei Times
Date: Feb 17, 2019
By: Dave Carroll  /  Staff reporter, with AFP

Taiwanese sisters Chan Hao-ching and Latisha Chan on Friday kept their bid for a

second doubles title of the season on track at the Qatar Open with a victory in the semi-finals at the Khalifa International Tennis and Squash Complex in Doha.

The Taiwanese duo defeated Veronika Kudermetova of Russia and Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia 6-4, 7-6 (7/2) in 1 hour, 27 minutes.

The sisters saved six of 10 break points and converted five of 13, edging past the conquerors of fellow Taiwanese Hsieh Su-wei by winning 72 of the 140 points contested to advance to their third final of the season, following their two final appearances in Australia last month — a loss in Adelaide and a victory in Hobart.

In the final the Chan sisters were due to face fourth seeds Anna-Lena Groenefeld of Germany and Demi Schuurs of the Netherlands, who defeated Ons Jabeur of Tunisia and Alison Riske of the US 6-2, 7-5 in Friday’s other semi-final.    [FULL  STORY]