Taiwanese tennis stars Yang Tsung-hua (楊宗樺) and Chan Yung-jan (詹詠然) came from behind to beat an Indian duo in the Asian Games mixed doubles final in Guangzhou yesterday afternoon, bringing Taiwan’s gold medal count at the Games to eight.
The second seeds defeated sixth-seeded Sania Mirza and Vishnu Vardhan 4-6, 6-1 (10-2) in just over an hour, giving Chan her second gold medal of the day after she also claimed gold in the women’s doubles with Chuang Chia-jung (莊佳容) yesterday morning.
The first set was relatively close, but the Indians were able to convert two of their three break-points, while Yang and Chan could only win one of their seven break-point opportunities.
However, the Taiwanese tightened up their play in the second set, not yielding a break-point, while breaking the Indians’ serve twice. That effort carried over to the super-tiebreaker, where the Taiwanese kept up the pressure on their opponents and never seemed in trouble.
It capped a good showing for Taiwan’s tennis players at the Asian Games after they earned three golds, two silvers and a bronze.
In the women’s doubles final held earlier, Chan and Chuang beat compatriots Chang Kai-chen (張凱貞) and Hsieh Su-wei (謝淑薇) to take the gold.
With two golds and one silver, Chan, ranked world No. 110 in women’s singles, emerged as the biggest winner of the Taiwanese stars. She will collect NT$7.5 million (US$247,000) from the government for her three medals.
The government is awarding cash prizes to medal winners, with gold medal winners collecting NT$3 million, silver medal winners NT$1.5 million and bronze medal winners NT$900,000.
Chan also helped Taiwan win a silver medal in the team competition on Tuesday last week.
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