‘GOOD FOR TENNIS’: Elina Svitolina easily outdid Karolina Muchova, but came away impressed with her style of play, which she said features variety rather than power

Taipei Times
Date: Feb 16, 2019
By: Dave Carroll  /  Staff reporter, with Reuters

Taiwanese sisters Chan Hao-ching and Latisha Chan on Thursday advanced to the semi-

finals of the doubles at the Qatar Open, while top seed Simona Halep successfully continued her bid for the title in the singles.

The Chan sisters took just 61 minutes to complete a 6-3, 6-2 victory over Lara Arruabarrena of Spain and Kaitlyn Christian of the US in their quarter-final at the Khalifa International Tennis and Squash Complex.

The Taiwanese duo saved three of four break points and converted four of six, winning 58 of the 98 points contested, helped by winning 62 percent of their points on second service.

The sisters were next due to face Veronika Kudermetova of Russia and Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia in the semi-finals after they defeated Raquel Atawo of the US and Katarina Srebotnik of Slovenia 6-4, 6-2 in 70 minutes.

In the singles, Halep battled past Germany’s Julia Goerges 7-6 (7/1), 7-6 (8/6) to set up a semi-final against Ukrainian Elina Svitolina.

Playing in her first tournament with new coach Thierry van Cleemput, Halep raced to a 4-0 lead in the opening set before her ninth-seeded opponent fought back to force a tiebreak.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/02/14
By: Huang Chiao-wen and Chung Yu-chen 

Taipei, Feb. 14 (CNA) Taiwanese-American guard Jeremy Lin said Wednesday after his debut game with the Toronto Raptors that it felt almost like cheating to join a team with more than 40 wins.

Lin, who was signed by the Raptors two-and-a-half hours before the opening tip, finished the game with eight points, five rebounds and five assists in a 129-120 win over the Washington Wizards on Wednesday.

“I almost feel like I’m cheating, jumping into a 40-something win team,” Lin said after the game at Toronto. “I’m almost like, ‘Man, I feel like I don’t deserve this’ or something. But I’m happy to be here, I’m happy to be part of the squad.”

The 30-year-old has never been on a team that has won a playoff series and has been injured twice during his teams’ post-season campaigns.    [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Feb 15, 2019
By: Dave Carroll  /  Staff reporter, with Reuters

Taiwanese No. 1 Hsieh Su-wei on Wednesday crashed out of the second round of the

singles at the Qatar Open, before returning to the hard courts to be dumped out of the first round of the doubles in a super tiebreak.

World No. 31 Hsieh fell 6-2, 6-4 to world No. 132 Karolina Muchova in 69 minutes at the Khalifa International Tennis and Squash Complex.

The Czech 22-year-old saved four of five break points and converted four of 10, winning 63 percent of her second serves to advance to a quarter-final against Ukrainian fourth seed Elina Svitolina.

Hsieh then partnered another Czech, Barbora Strycova, in the first round of the doubles, and the second seeds fell to a shock 4-6, 6-3, 10-4 defeat to unseeded Veronika Kudermetova of Russia and Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia in 1 hour, 15 minutes.

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/02/13
By: Lung Po-an and Evelyn Kao

Latisha Chan (詹詠然, front) and Chan Hao-ching (詹皓晴) / CNA file photo
Taipei, Feb. 13 (CNA) Taiwanese sisters Latisha Chan (詹詠然) and Chan Hao-ching (詹皓晴) advanced to the quarter-finals of the women’s doubles at the Qatar Total Open Wednesday, overpowering Japan’s Shuko Aoyama and Lidziya Marozava of Russia in two straight sets.

The Chan sisters took a 4-0 lead at the beginning of the first set but their Japanese-Russian rival came from behind to force a tie-breaker before the Taiwanese duo managed to secure a 7-6 (2) victory.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus T&aiwan
Date: 2019/02/12
By: Huang Chiao-wen and Ko Lin

Taipei, Feb. 12 (CNA) Taiwanese tennis veteran Hsieh Su-wei (謝淑薇) advanced to the

second round of the women’s singles at the Qatar Total Open on Tuesday, defeating Aliaksandra Sasnovich of Belarus in two straight sets.

The 32-year old Hsieh got off to a good start at the Khalifa International Tennis and Squash Complex, winning the first set 6-2, and managed to sweep aside the Belarusian 6-0 in the second set to finish the match in just 59 minutes.    [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Feb 12, 2019
By: Dave Carroll  /  Staff reporter, with Reuters, SOFIA

Taiwan’s Hsieh Cheng-peng on Sunday lost his bid to claim his first ATP Tour doubles

title at the Sofia Open, while Daniil Medvedev gifted himself an early birthday present in the singles final.

Hsieh and his Indonesian partner, Christopher Rungkat, fell to a 6-2, 4-6, 10-2 defeat to Nikola Mektic and Jurgen Melzer in 67 minutes.

The Croatian-Austrian duo saved five of six break points and converted two of eight to claim what was their first ATP Tour title as a pairing.

“I am very happy to win the title,” Mektic told the ATP Web site.    [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Feb 06, 2019
By: Jason Pan  /  Staff reporter

Fresh winds of change and promises of reform are sweeping through the nation’s soccer

community with a new regime taking over at governing body the Chinese Taipei Football Association (CTFA) last year, but the result of this season’s Taiwan Football Premier League (TFPL) relegation battle has left a team in limbo with no league to play in and has also exposed other problems that urgently need fixing in the coming months.

As usual, this season was a two-horse race for the title in the TFPL between Taipei Tatung and Kaohsiung Taipower, the two teams with the strongest corporate backing and financial clout.

The former were crowned champions with 54 points, while the latter were runners-up with 44 points.

Finishing bottom of the table were National Sports Training Center (NSTC), the army-affiliated team composed of young trainees playing in lieu of doing their compulsory military service, and expat side Royal Blues Taipei, headed up by Polish general manager Robert Iwanicki.    [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Jan 30, 2019 
By: Dave Carroll  /  Staff reporter

Taiwanese third seed Hsieh Su-wei on Monday fell to a shock 6-4, 7-6 (7/2) defeat to

Monica Niculescu in the first round of the Thailand Open in Hua Hin.

The 100th-ranked Romanian saved 10 of 15 break points and converted six of 13 to wrap up the victory in 2 hours, 6 minutes and set up a second-round clash with Poland’s Magda Linette, who defeated Australian qualifier Priscilla Hon 6-1, 2-6, 6-2.

“I’m happy that I could play this kind of game. I knew Su-wei is going to be very good … and I knew she’s a very interesting opponent, mixing the game, like me,” Niculescu said after the match. “I had to run a lot, fight a lot and mix it up, and I think I did that. I’m happy that I could finish in two, because in the end I was losing a little bit of energy, so I’m happy that I could finish it in the tiebreak.”    [FULL  STORY]