The French Open, which begins today, is the favorite tournament of Taiwanese No. 1 Hsieh Su-wei. The 27-year-old will have even more cause to like the season’s second Grand Slam if she can repeat the success she enjoyed with China’s Peng Shuai at the Italian Open last weekend, when the pair pulled off a stunning win in the doubles final against Italians Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci.
With the home crowd behind them, the Italian duo, ranked No. 1 in the world in doubles, were red-hot favorites in Rome, but Hsieh and Peng battled back from a set down to claim a 4-6, 6-3, 10-8 victory
Their triumph at the Foro Italico was even more impressive, as the Italians have won three out of the past four Grand Slam doubles titles. They include the Australian Open earlier this year, where they got a warning of what Hsieh and Peng are capable of after having to fight all the way, before pulling off a 6-4, 0-6, 7-5 win over the Taiwanese-Chinese duo.
Photo: AFP
Hsieh and Peng have a genuine chance of challenging for the doubles title on the clay courts of Roland Garros, as was shown by their success against Errani and Vinci on the same surface in Rome and the fact that they reached the semi-finals in Paris in 2009.
In an exclusive interview with the Taipei Times late last year, Hsieh gave an insight into some of the secrets of their success.
“We’ve known each other for more than 12 years,” Hsieh said. “We understand how we [both] play and how to get out of problems if we have trouble on the court.”
“We understand each other a lot and this is an important key in doubles, so that will help us a lot,” she said.
Hsieh’s prospects in the singles are less promising, having drawn second seed Maria Sharapova of Russia in the first round.
The Hsinchu-born world No. 42 has never been beyond the first round at Roland Garros and it would be a major surprise if she manages it this year against the reigning women’s singles champion.
In Hsieh’s final warmup tournament before heading to Paris she beat world No. 62 Annika Beck of Germany 6-7 (6/8), 7-5, 6-1 in the first round of the Strasbourg Open on Tuesday, before losing a hard-fought second-round match against Japan’s Misaki Doi 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (7-3).
Taiwanese hopes rest with Lu Yen-hsun in the men’s draw, who like Hsieh has yet to win a singles match at Roland Garros.
In the first round Lu faces world No. 86 Simone Bolelli of Italy, whose best performance in Paris came in 2008, when he reached the third round.
In Lu’s only clay-court warmup tournament before the French Open he beat Italy’s Andrea Seppi, before losing to Pablo Andujar of Spain 6-2, 6-0 in the second round of the Open de Nice on Wednesday.
All the Taiwanese players who took part in qualifying in Paris last week lost in the first round.
In the men’s draw, Jimmy Wang was sent packing by 17-year-old Quentin Halys of France, the world No. 1,068 winning 6-3, 6-4.
Chen Ti fared even worse, Amir Weintraub of Israel making short work of his Taiwanese opponent in a 6-1, 6-3 success.
Chang Kai-chen would also have been disappointed with her loss in the women’s singles to another Israeli, Julia Glushko. The world No. 150 breezed past 11th seed Chang 6-3, 6-2.
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