Top Taiwanese men’s tennis player Lu Yen-hsun (盧彥勳) clinched his second ATP Tour doubles title at the Thailand Open yesterday.
Lu and his partner, Danai Udomchoke of Thailand, defeated fourth seeds Eric Butorac of the US and Australia’s Paul Hanley 6-3, 6-4 in Bangkok. The 29-year-old Taiwanese and his partner needed just 1 hour, 13 minutes to wrap up the match and the pair won a shared US$30,220 in prize money, earning 250 points in the doubles rankings.
Lu, ranked world No. 65 in the singles category, won his first doubles title with Rainer Schuettler of Germany in India in 2005.
Photo: EPA
“I was at my happiest moment during match point, because I’ve always dreamed of holding a Thailand Open trophy in the 10 years I’ve played the tournament,” Udomchoke told the ATP Tour Web site. “I feel very proud of having done it today.”
“I feel very happy, there’s no reason to be upset at all. I’m very happy for Danai [Udomchoke] to win on his home ground,” Lu said. “I don’t know how I can explain how I feel, I’m just very happy and I appreciate playing with my friend. This is another experience we go through as friends and I’m happy.”
Lu and Udomchoke clinched the opening set in 34 minutes after just one break of serve. The Taiwanese-Thai duo repeated the trick in the second set to close out the victory.
“Early on, I felt my serve was very confident and that took the pressure off, because our strategy was to break them [Butorac and Hanley] early in the match,” Udomchoke said. “Tennis is never a sure thing — anything can happen within a few games, so it was important we kept our cool and concentration.”
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique