The Williams sisters might have pioneered the sibling trend in the world of women’s tennis, but Taiwan’s own Ho Chiu-mei and Ho Chiu-hsiang are also strutting it in style.
Hailing from a small township in Chiayi, the 51-year-old and 47-year-old sisters are Taiwan’s medal hope in the Deaflympics women’s tennis doubles.
Thursday’s breezy 6-1, 6-0 triumph over their Japanese opponents Yachiyo Abe and Mizu Tsujioka, both 24, opened the door to the gold when the sisters do battle with 32-year-old Verena Fleckenstein and 18-year-old Heike Albrecht of Germany today.
PHOTO: CNA
“I promise to perform my best to secure the gold for Taiwan,” Ho Chiu-mei told a pre-match press conference, saying confidently her age would not detract from her skills.
Being the youngest in a family of five children, throughout her adult life Ho Chiu-mei hoped she would be the one to escape the family curse — gradual hearing loss, but it came as a crushing below when her hearing started to deteriorate in her 30s when her co-workers had to shout in order to communicate with her.
Losing her hearing also meant losing self-confidence, she said.
Thanks to the constant encouragement and persistent nudging from family and friends, Ho Chiu-mei decided to shake off the blues by again taking up the love her life — tennis — and when she did, it was as if she had never stopped.
Ho had her first taste of tennis in sixth grade when her physical education teacher Chang Yue-han, who doubled as a tennis coach, thought her long legs and long arms provided the ideal physique for an athlete.
Chang also convinced a few of Ho’s classmates to take up the sport and soon enough the team of small-town girls was winning local competitions and eventually triumphed at the national championships.
Ho Chiu-mei recalled that when Chang recruited them, none of the players had ever seen a racket before and the school did not even have a tennis court for them to practice on. A military general who lived nearby later decided to build a make-shift court on his property to accommodate the team.
Fast forward to the 1990s and Ho Chiu-mei’s hard work paid off as she made a name for herself in the tennis world when she was the national champion eight years running. In 1994, she brought honor to Taiwan by winning a bronze at the 1994 Asian Games in Hiroshima, Japan.
Just as she was standing at the pinnacle of her career, her hearing began to fail her to the point she could not hear when the racket hit the ball. A disheartened Ho Chiu-mei decided to drop out and start a family.
For years, Ho Chiu-mei would play casually, but never dreamed of returning to the sport as a professional.
When Taipei won the bid to host the Deaflympics, the Chinese Taipei Sports Association of the Deaf lobbied hard for her to participate. Eventually, she said yes and even started encouraging other deaf people to take up the sport.
“Tennis has brought much color to my life, even if it means I have to stand on a silent court,” she once said.
Ho Chiu-mei was not about to play the Deaflympics alone, however, at least not without her older sister Ho Chiu-hsiang.
Unlike Ho Chiu-mei, who started playing as a child, the older sister did not take her first swing of a racket until she was in her 30s.
Now 51, the older Ho said she picked up tennis two decades ago only because she wanted to keep fit and have fun at the same time.
The more she played, the more she liked the sport. Despite her age, Ho Chiu-hsiang was beating all the younger players with her famous backhand slice.
Even her younger sister was impressed with her skills, physical endurance and most of all her tenacity. So impressed that Hou Chiu-mei recommended that the association put her in the women’s doubles — as her partner.
When asked how she felt about her chance of a gold medal, in particular when facing players some 30 years younger than her, Ho Chiu-hsiang displayed her confidence and said: “There is a saying that old pieces of gingers are the spiciest ones. This is my first time and probably my last time to participate in an international event and I don’t think age is a problem. I will do my best to bring honor to our country.”
Bologna on Thursday advanced past Empoli to reach their first Coppa Italia final in more than half a century. Thijs Dallinga’s 87th-minute header earned Bologna a 2-1 win and his side advanced 5-1 on aggregate. Giovanni Fabbian opened the scoring for Bologna with a header seven minutes in. Then Viktor Kovalenko equalized for Empoli in the 30th minute by turning in a rebound to finish off a counterattack. Bologna won the first leg 3-0. In the May 14 final in Rome, Bologna are to face AC Milan, who eliminated city rivals Inter 4-1 on aggregate following a 3-0 win on Wednesday. Bologna last reached the
If the Wild finally break through and win their first playoff series in a decade, Minnesota’s top line likely will be the reason. They were all over the Golden Knights through the first two games of their NHL Western Conference quarter-finals series, which was 1-1 going back to Minnesota for Game 3 today. The Wild tied the series with a 5-2 win on Tuesday. Matt Boldy had three goals and an assist in the first two games, while Kirill Kaprizov produced two goals and three assists. Joel Eriksson Ek, who centers the line, has yet to get on the scoresheet. “I think the biggest
The Minnesota Timberwolves, with so many promising performances spoiled by late mistakes fresh in their memory bank, sure timed this strong finish well. Jaden McDaniels scored a career playoff-high 30 points and spearheaded Minnesota’s stifling defense on an ailing Luka Doncic, and the Timberwolves beat the Los Angeles Lakers 116-104 to take a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven Western Conference first-round series in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Friday night. “Jaden never looks tired. He looks like he could play 48 minutes,” said teammate Anthony Edwards, who had 29 points, eight rebounds and eight assists. Julius Randle added 22 points for the Wolves, who outscored
From a commemorative jersey to a stadium in his name, Argentine soccer organizers are planning a slew of tributes to their late “Captain” Pope Francis, eulogized as the ultimate team player. Tributes to the Argentine pontiff, a lifelong lover of the game, who died on Monday at the age of 88, have been peppered with soccer metaphors in his homeland. “Francisco. What a player,” the Argentine Football Federation (AFA) said, describing the first pope from Latin America and the southern hemisphere as a generational talent who “never hogged the ball” and who showed the world “the importance of having an Argentine captain,
RSS