Taipei Times
Date: Jan 13, 2018
By: Dave Carroll  /  Staff reporter, with AP, SYDNEY

Taiwan’s Latisha Chan and Czech partner Andrea Sestini Hlavackova yesterday failed

to pick up their first title as a pairing at the Sydney International, falling to a disappointing defeat to third seeds Gabriela Dabrowski and Xu Yifan in the final.

The top seeds fell to a 6-3, 6-1 loss in 56 minutes, sending down seven double faults — including three in a row by Chan in the second set — and only winning 22 percent of their points on second serve as the Canadian-Chinese duo celebrated their third title after victories in Miami and Connecticut last year.

“We had a really good season last year and I’m excited for 2018,” Dabrowski said at the trophy presentation. “Hopefully, we can have some more good results together.”

The Taiwanese-Czech pairing saved just one of six break points and created only two, with Chan saying at the trophy presentation that the wind had been a problem for the players.    [FULL  STORY]

The 28-year-old from Miaoli won all major Japanese Go awards

Taiwan News 
Date: 2018/01/11
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Go champion Hsieh Yimin (謝依旻) returned from Japan to

accept an award from her native Miaoli County Thursday.

The 28-year-old won all three major awards for the Chinese board game, which is played by two opponents who take turns placing black and white stones on the intersections of a grid formed by 19 x 19 lines.

The magistrate of Miaoli County, Hsu Yao-chang (徐耀昌), praised her achievements at the ceremony Thursday and encouraged her to continue her efforts and seek glory on behalf of Taiwan, the Liberty Times reported.

Hsieh started playing Go in her home town of Miaoli at the age of five, drawing interest from a teacher who predicted she would go far in the sport. She later moved to Japan and at the age of 14, she became the country’s youngest professional player to receive a certification from the Japan Go Association.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/01/11
By: Kuan-lin Liu and Huang Chiao-wen

Taipei, Jan. 11 (CNA) Taiwan ranked fourth in the World Baseball Softball

Confederation’s (WBSC) 2017 end-of-year men’s baseball world rankings, which weigh the performance of a country’s national team in sanctioned international competitions over a four-year period.

According to the rankings announced Thursday, Japan remains at the top of the list for the third straight year, followed by the United States and South Korea in second and third places, respectively.

While Taiwan maintained its fourth-ranking position for a second consecutive year, it did not add much to its cumulative rankings points, with a poor overall performance in 2017.    [FULL  STORY]

Another victory from local badminton star Tai Tzu-ying

Taiwan News  
Date: 2018/01/10
By: Mabel Neo,Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwanese badminton star Tai Tzu-ying beat World

No.11 Zhang Beiwen from the U.S. 15-9, 15-12 in the India Premier Badminton League, this morning (Jan. 10) in New Delhi.

Zhang showed some resistance to hang in there but was not up to the task at hand. She managed to race to a 4-0 lead in the second game, but that was short-lived as Tai came roaring back to highlight Smash Masters dominance.

Tai, together with HS Prannoy, led the Ahmedabad Smash Masters to a comprehensive 5-0 win over the Mumbai Rockets at Nehru Indoor in New Delhi, India. Tai will be heading to Malaysia for the 2018 Perodua Malaysia Masters which will be held from Jan. 16-21 at the Axiata Arena, Kuala Lumpur Sports City.

The Perodua Malaysia Masters has been upgraded to a Grade 2, Level 4, BWF World Tour (Super Series) status as of this year and has, in turn, attracted many world-class badminton players, including Olympic Medalists Chen Long and Lin Dan. Taiwanese badminton players Tai Tzu-ying and Chou Tien-chen will be participating in the competition.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/01/10
By Joseph Yeh, CNA staff reporter

When the Legislature passed long-awaited revisions to the National Sports Act (國民體

育法) on Aug. 31, the government hailed it as a major step forward in ensuring that Taiwan’s often opaque sports associations will be run more openly and professionally.

A key change made was to require that all of these governing bodies of individual sports hold elections for their top posts within six months after the revisions took effect on Sept. 20.

The theory was that elections would help root out nepotism, get rid of association chiefs who have ruled their sports with an iron first or have been linked to scandals, and make the bodies more accountable to the athletes they serve.    [FULL  STORY]

A FINAL BLOW: Top seed Garbine Muguruza yesterday alleviated fears of another injury setback, twice breaking Kiki Bertens, who lost the tiebreaker with a long serve

Taipei Times
Date:Jan 11, 2018
By: Dave Carroll  /  Staff reporter, with Reuters, SYDNEY

Taiwan’s Latisha Chan and Czech partner Andrea Sestini Hlavackova yesterday

survived a second-set meltdown to advance to the semi-finals of the doubles at the Sydney International, the final warm-up tournament before next week’s Australian Open.

The top seeds took one hour, 37 minutes to see off Andreja Klepac of Slovenia and Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez 7-6 (7/3), 1-6, 10-6, saving five of 11 break points and converting four of nine.

Chan, who previously played on the WTA Tour using her Chinese name, Chan Yung-jan, and Sestini Hlavackova advanced to the semi-finals despite winning only 67 of the 140 points contested and they next face Lara Arruabarrena of Spain and Lauren Davis of the US, who stunned fourth seeds Kiki Bertens of the Netherlands and Johanna Larsson of Sweden 7-6 (7/4), 2-6, 10-7.

In the other semi-final, second seeds Lucie Safarova and Barbora Strycova are due to take on third seeds Gabriela Dabrowski and Xu Yifan after the Czech duo edged Kateryna Bondarenko of Ukraine and Casey Dellacqua of Australia 6-4, 3-6, 10-7, while the Canadian-Chinese pairing defeated Shuko Aoyama of Japan and Yang Zhaoxuan of China 6-4, 7-5.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/01/08
By: Huang Chiao-wen and Elizabeth Hsu

Taipei, Jan. 8 (CNA) Former New York Yankees pitcher Chien-Ming Wang (王建民) said

Monday he went through 2017 without a contract to pitch in the United States because of his age and physical issues, but he still does not want to call it a career, at least not yet.

The 37-year-old right-hander is in Taiwan for part of this offseason to attend a training camp for pitchers organized by the Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL), the top-tier professional baseball league in Taiwan, public charity activities and a NIKE baseball camp.

On Monday, Wang was working out at Tainan Municipal Baseball Stadium and was invited to talk to young pitchers of the Uni-President Lions, a CPBL team based in the southern Taiwan city.    [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Jan 09, 2018
By: Dave Carroll  /  Staff reporter, with Reuters, SYDNEY

Taiwan’s Latisha Chan yesterday advanced to the quarter-finals of the doubles at the

Sydney International, while US Open champion Sloane Stephens was bundled out of the first round of the singles.

Top seeds Chan, who previously competed on the WTA Tour using her Chinese name, Chan Yung-jan, and Andrea Sestini Hlavackova survived a second-set fightback by Arantxa Parra Santonja of Spain and Renata Voracova of the Czech Republic to claim a 6-2, 4-6, 10-3 victory in 73 minutes.

The Taiwanese-Czech duo saved three of six break points and converted four of six, winning 64 of the 117 points contested, despite sending down six double faults at the final warm-up tournament before the Australian Open begins on Monday next week.

In the quarter-finals, doubles world No. 1 Chan and world No. 5 Sestini Hlavackova face either Andreja Klepac and Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez or Anna-Lena Groenefeld and Vania King, who are scheduled to play their first-round match today.    [FULL  STORY]