Taiwanese tennis ace Latisha Chan and partner Ekaterina Makarova of Russia were overcome on Sunday by their opponents in the final of the Rogers Cup in Montreal, Canada, but Chan will still hold the world No. 1 ranking in women’s doubles — for just a week or two.
Chan is passing on the Cincinnati Open, for which women’s doubles begin today, to participate in the Asian Games, which open in Indonesia on Sunday. So, her top ranking, made official yesterday, will likely last only until next week.
The Taiwanese-Russian pairing won their first set 6-4 against Australia’s Ashleigh Barty and Demi Schuurs of the Netherlands, who staged a comeback 3-6 and 8-10 in two straight sets.
Photo: AFP
“Unfortunately we didn’t win the title this week, but it was only 2 points away from us, congrats to our opponents, it was a really good match, we all gave our best out there,” Chan wrote on Facebook.
“But this is only the first tournament for me and Katia playing as a team, and we are both really positive and happy with the results for the start, looking forward to more tournaments in the future,” she added.
Although Chan is giving up the opportunity to win 900 points from the Cincinnati tournament, she said it was “a tremendous honor for me to attend the Asian Games,” and vowed to “do my best to get the best score.”
Chan advanced to the semi-finals in the 2014 Rogers Cup, and this year, she advanced to the finals for the first time, her record best, picking up enough points to rise to the top ranking in women’s doubles.
The 28-year-old moved up to second in the doubles rankings after winning the Silicon Valley Classic final with Czech veteran Kveta Peschke on Sunday last week.
She takes the top spot this week from Timea Babos of Hungary after Babos lost her quarter-final match in Montreal.
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