Taiwanese tennis stars Chan Yung-jan (詹詠然) and Chuang Chia-jung (莊佳容) topped off their dominant performances at the US$75,000 International Tennis Federation tournament in Dothan, Alabama, yesterday by claiming titles in both the singles and doubles categories.
Chan began the day by defeating Russian Alla Kudryavtseva 6-4, 6-2 in the women's singles final.
The victory not only gave Chan the tournament title, but also boosted her world singles ranking from No. 69 to No. 57, the highest of her career.
However, Chan's real challenge had already come in the semi-finals, when she needed three sets and favorable calls from the judge to get past fifth-seeded Romanian Edina Gallovits 6-4, 5-7, 6-1 in a nail-biting victory.
Chan saw an early 4-1 lead in the first set nearly evaporate when Gallovits was on the verge of evening the score 4-4 in the eighth game.
Chan charged forward to scoop up a shot that her opponent had dribbled over the net to level the score at 30-30.
Gallovits argued that the ball had bounced twice, but Chan got the call and went on to take the game and the set.
That would prove critical as Gallovits won the second set to level the match, but Chan easily took the third set 6-1 to set up her finals match.
Despite the fact that Chan's championship match was her ninth outing in six days, she still had enough energy left to pair up with doubles teammate Chuang and easily breeze past Germans Angelika Bachmann and Vanessa Henke 6-2, 6-3.
The win saw Chuang rise from No. 226 to No. 222 in the world singles rankings, and from No. 14 to No. 13 in the doubles rankings.
Chan also advanced from No. 18 to No. 17 in the world doubles rankings.
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