A minor case of heat stroke yesterday did not deter Chan Jung-jan (詹詠然) as she and her sister Chan Hao-ching (詹皓晴) won a much-anticipated gold medal in women’s doubles, beating Thai opponents Varatchaya and Varunya Wongteanchai in two straight sets.
The Chan sisters took the first set 6-1 in less than one hour, breaking their opponents’ serves in the fourth and sixth games.
However, Chan Jung-jan called for medical treatment during the break between the first and second sets, and medical staff sought to reduce her body temperature.
Photo: CNA
Despite an apparent decline in strength, Chan Jung-jan and her sister worked together to break the Thai sisters’ serves in the second game of the second set.
Though both kept their serves after the second game, the Wongteanchais’ relentless attack and defense paid off when they broke the Chans’ serve in the eighth game and kept their own serve at the ninth game, to take a 5-4 lead.
However, the Taiwanese pair proved unstoppable as they kept their own serve at the 10th game and broke their opponents’ serve in the 11th, giving them a 6-5 lead.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
Chan Jung-jan’s powerful return at the net took the lead to 7-5 and won the Chans the gold.
Chang Kai-chen’s (張凱貞) hope of defending her Universiade singles gold medal title had been thwarted in the morning when she lost to Varatchaya Wongteanchai in straight sets in the semi-final.
She lost the first set 2-6 following a series of unforced errors and two broken serves. Though she broke Wongteanchai’s serve twice in the second set and forced a tie break, Chang appeared to run out of steam to finish 6-7 (3-7).
Photo: CNA
She said afterward that strained abdominal muscles and the diarrhea she has been suffering over the past few days had affected her performance.
However, Taiwan will still be represented in the women’s singles tennis final, as Lee Ya-hsuan (李亞軒) beat Thai Patcharin Cheapchandej 6-3, 4-6, 6-2 to secure a spot. Lee is scheduled to face Varatchaya Wongteanchai in the women’s singles finals today.
As there is no bronze medalist match in the women’s singles, Chang and Patcharin are both going home with bronze medals.
Photo: CNA
Meanwhile, Jason Jung (莊吉生) moved one step closer to his goal of clinching a gold in his first Universiade game after defeating Portugal’s Nuno Borges in the men’s tennis singles semi-final in two straight sets, 6-3, 6-3.
He will face South Korean Hong Seongchan in the final.
Chan Jung-jan was scheduled to join Hsieh Cheng-peng (謝政鵬) in competing in the mixed doubles semi-final match, but was forced to retire due to physical reasons.
In badminton, world No. 1 Tai Tzu-ying (戴資穎) defeated Belgian Lianne Tan 2-1 to advance to the semi-finals in the women’s singles.
Taiwanese Chiang Mei-hui (江美惠) also secured a semi-final spot after crushing her South Korean opponent in two straight games, 21-13, 21-6.
Wang Tzu-wei (王子維), the only Taiwanese left in the men’s singles, beat French Lucas Florent Claerbout in three games, 21-12, 19-21, 21-12.
Wang Chi-ling (王齊麟) and Lee Chia-hsin (李佳馨) and Lee Yang (李洋) and Hsu Ya-ching (許雅晴) were the remaining pairs who fought their way into the semi-finals for the mixed doubles.
The pairs of Lee Yang and Lee Jhe-huei (李哲輝) and Hsu Ya-ching and Wu Ti-jung (吳玓蓉) advanced to the semi-finals for men’s and women’s doubles respectively.
In table tennis, world No. 8 Cheng I-ching (鄭怡靜) beat Romanian Irina Ciobanu in the women’s singles quarter-final match in four games to advance.
Chen Chien-an (陳建安) is also headed to the semi-final after defeating South Korean Lin Jong-hoon 4-3.
As of press time last night, Chen Chien-an and Chiang Hung-chieh (江宏傑), Lee Chia-sheng (李佳陞) and Liao Cheng-tin (廖振珽) had yet to finish their respective semi-final matches.
Meanwhile, Taiwanese wushu athlete Chen Yu-wei (陳宥崴) won a silver medal in the men’s taolu.
China’s Kong Fanhui (孔繁輝) won the gold with a score of 19.33 and Malaysia’s Loh Choon How the bronze.
Taiwan’s Chen Yi-ying (陳宜盈) won silver in women’s taolu.
Taiwan’s rhythmic gymnastics team finished their group competition with a silver medal.
Additional reporting by CNA
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
BEIJING’S ‘PAWN’: ‘We, as Chinese, should never forget our roots, history, culture,’ Want Want Holdings general manager Tsai Wang-ting said at a summit in China The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday condemned Want Want China Times Media Group (旺旺中時媒體集團) for making comments at the Cross-Strait Chinese Culture Summit that it said have damaged Taiwan’s sovereignty, adding that it would investigate if the group had colluded with China in the matter and contravened cross-strait regulations. The council issued a statement after Want Want Holdings (旺旺集團有限公司) general manager Tsai Wang-ting (蔡旺庭), the third son of the group’s founder, Tsai Eng-meng (蔡衍明), said at the summit last week that the group originated in “Chinese Taiwan,” and has developed and prospered in “the motherland.” “We, as Chinese, should never
INDO-PACIFIC REGION: Royal Navy ships exercise the right of freedom of navigation, including in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, the UK’s Tony Radakin told a summit Freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific region is as important as it is in the English Channel, British Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Tony Radakin said at a summit in Singapore on Saturday. The remark came as the British Royal Navy’s flagship aircraft carrier, the HMS Prince of Wales, is on an eight-month deployment to the Indo-Pacific region as head of an international carrier strike group. “Upholding the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and with it, the principles of the freedom of navigation, in this part of the world matters to us just as it matters in the
‘A SURVIVAL QUESTION’: US officials have been urging the opposition KMT and TPP not to block defense spending, especially the special defense budget, an official said The US plans to ramp up weapons sales to Taiwan to a level exceeding US President Donald Trump’s first term as part of an effort to deter China as it intensifies military pressure on the nation, two US officials said on condition of anonymity. If US arms sales do accelerate, it could ease worries about the extent of Trump’s commitment to Taiwan. It would also add new friction to the tense US-China relationship. The officials said they expect US approvals for weapons sales to Taiwan over the next four years to surpass those in Trump’s first term, with one of them saying
RSS