Taiwan badminton players won two gold and two silver medals at this year’s US Open, which concluded in Los Angeles on Saturday.
Fang Chieh-min and Lee Sheng-mu won gold in an all-Taiwanese final in the Men’s Doubles, easily defeating Chen Hung-ling and Lin Yu-lang 21-19, 21-14.
It was the pair’s fourth consecutive win in as many stops on the tour, and their global ranking, now at eighth, is expected to move up.
Chen and Lin, who ranked 14th in the world and were seeded third in the championship, had to settle for silver.
In the Women’s Doubles, Taiwan players Cheng Wen-hsin and Chien Yu-chin, who ranked fourth in the world and first-seed in the championship, drew their first game against the championship’s fourth-seed Rie Eto and Yu Wakita of Japan, but cruised to a win in the next two games 21-8, 22-20.
It was their second consecutive gold on the tour.
In the Mixed Doubles, Taiwan’s Lee Sheng-mu and Chien Yu-chin finished second to Michael Fuchs and Birgit Overzier of Germany, who won 21-19, 21-14.
The tournament, which began on July 19, has a prize purse of US$120,000.
It has attracted more than 300 players from 33 countries.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but