As 2012 draws to a close, Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei can look back on a year in which she won her first two WTA tournaments, represented her country at the Olympic Games and saw her ranking shoot from 172 to a career-high 25, making her the highest-ranked Taiwanese tennis player ever in singles. Only China’s Li Na is ranked higher in Asia; even US star Venus Williams is only one place ahead of Hsieh in the WTA rankings.
To round the season off, Hsieh played in the prestigious Qatar Airways Tournament of Champions in Sofia early last month. Losing her first match at the round-robin event to former world No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki, she was then defeated by Italy’s Roberta Vinci in straight sets, but bounced back to end her season on a high by beating experienced Slovak Daniela Hantuchova.
Speaking from Melbourne, Australia, where she is preparing for next season, Hsieh said she was delighted to be the first Taiwanese player to compete in the event.
Photo: AFP
“I was very happy and excited to get into this tournament and to win the last match against Hantuchova to finish the year,” she said.
Hsieh sees her coach, Australian doubles legend Paul McNamee, as a key factor in her meteoric rise over the past year or so.
“I started working with Paul last year during Wimbledon,” Hsieh said. “I think I changed a lot of my game, including mentally, and I think the main key is I have a great coach.”
McNamee sees Hsieh as one of the top three volleyers in the women’s game and has encouraged her to come to the net more, but is happy to let her express herself on court.
“It was important she just felt she could be herself,” McNamee said during a break in Hsieh’s current training program in Melbourne.
“She didn’t have to change who she was, she’s a free spirit and you can’t put that in a box,” he said. “It’s very important that you let that fly.”
However, one thing he was keen for her to do was to play more singles and not restrict herself to being a doubles specialist.
Hsieh has been on the circuit for more than a decade, and although she had enjoyed some singles success — most notably, reaching the fourth round of the Australian Open in 2008 — she was concentrating on doubles before teaming up with McNamee last year.
“She didn’t really want to play much singles when I started working with her, but I could see she had so much talent it was a waste,” McNamee said.
He persuaded a reluctant Hsieh to play singles in an ITF tournament in Uzbekistan in July last year and, having reached the final there, she went on to win a tournament in Beijing the following week. It was to prove a turning point that has seen the 26-year-old climb from No. 361 in the world, where she found herself at the end of 2010, to her current lofty ranking position.
“My job was to make her feel like she belonged in the big league and I think she believes it now,” McNamee said.
“She can hit forehands and backhands in both directions [with equal proficiency], which is very unusual,” he added. “Her opponent never quite knows what shot Su-wei is going to play.”
Russian star Maria Sharapova has found Hsieh’s unpredictability difficult to deal with over the years, as she explained after her third-round victory over her at this year’s Wimbledon.
“I faced her many times in the juniors and she used to be a nightmare for me, because she used to slice and dropshot on clay,” Sharapova said. “I was like: ‘Where did she learn how to play tennis like that?’ Uses both hands, switches rackets. We had real battles in the juniors.”
Despite her recent singles success, Hsieh is not neglecting doubles and is to team up with China’s Peng Shuai next year.
“We’ve known each other for more than 12 years,” Hsieh said. “We’re good friends, so I think we will enjoy doubles next year and try to win a Grand Slam together.”
“We understand how we [both] play and how to get out of problems if we have trouble on the court,” she said. “We understand each other a lot and this is an important key in doubles, so that will help us a lot.”
McNamee — who won the doubles title at Wimbledon in 1980 and 1982, and at the Australian Open in 1979 and 1983 — believes Hsieh is destined to go far in the format he mastered so well.
“I’d love to see [Hsieh and Peng] in the final of a Grand Slam,” he said. “I believe in Su-wei’s career she definitely has the capability of winning a Grand Slam in doubles.”
Hsieh was born in Hsinchu and spent her early childhood there before moving to Kaohsiung and then to Taipei, where she now lives.
However, her life on the tennis circuit means that she spends less than three months of the year in Taiwan.
As well as missing family and friends, Hsieh has a yearning for Taiwanese food when she is away.
“I miss the food from the night market, especially chou doufu [stinky tofu],” she said.
Apart from Taipei, her favorite city of the many she has visited over the course of her career is Tokyo, which has a lot of attractions for Hsieh.
“The food, the culture, the buildings are pretty nice and the shopping is also good … and they have a Disneyland!” she said.
After completing pre-season training in Melbourne, Hsieh will have a brief trip home for Christmas, before heading for Shenzhen, where she is competing in a new WTA tournament. She then travels to Tasmania for the Moorilla Hobart International before playing in the first Grand Slam of the year, the Australian Open.
“I’m traveling almost every week. Hotels are my home … and the tennis court,” she said.
Despite having spent more than 10 years on the grueling professional circuit, Hsieh has no plans to hang up her racket anytime soon.
“If my coach doesn’t fire me I’ll continue to play for a couple more years!” she joked.
Taiwan’s double world champion Lin Yu-ting lost her bronze medal at the International Boxing Association (IBA) Women’s World Boxing Championships after she failed to meet eligibility criteria, the governing body of amateur boxing said yesterday. The IBA did not elaborate on Lin’s disqualification. Bulgarian Svetlana Kamenova Staneva, who lost to Lin in the under-57kg quarter-finals, was awarded the bronze medal. Algeria’s Imane Khelif was also disqualified hours before her gold medal bout. The 23-year-old was scheduled to meet Yang Liu in the 66kg division final, but Thailand’s Janjaem Suwannapheng, who lost to Khelif in the semi-finals, would fight the Chinese instead. “A boxer from Algeria
Retired Formula One champion Nelson Piquet has been ordered by a Brazilian court to pay more than US$950,000 in “moral damages” for making racist and homophobic comments about Lewis Hamilton. The 70-year-old Brazilian had referred to seven-time champion Hamilton as “neguinho,” a racially offensive term that means “little black guy,” in 2021. In another interview, Piquet used racist and homophobic language. The court in Brasilia on Friday ordered Piquet to pay 5 million (US$952,998) reals “in collective moral damages, to be allocated to funds for the promotion of racial equality and against discrimination of the LGBTQIA+ community.” The charges were filed by several
Japanese two-way star Shohei Ohtani is to make a one-season MLB record US$65 million this year in salary and endorsements, Forbes magazine reported on Tuesday. Ohtani, set to be the starting pitcher for the Los Angeles Angels in their MLB season opener today against Oakland, helped spark Japan to the World Baseball Classic title a week ago with a victory over the US in the final. The 28-year-old who serves as an outfielder and designated hitter when not on the mound, signed a one-year contract extension worth US$30 million last year and will make US$35 million in endorsements this year, Forbes reported. That
ISRAEL PROTESTS: Disappointed soccer fans said that the loss of the under-20 event would affect young players and lamented the blind mixing of political issues Indonesian fans reacted with anger and dismay yesterday after the nation on Wednesday was stripped of hosting rights for the FIFA Under-20 World Cup only eight weeks before the start of the tournament amid political turmoil regarding Israel’s participation. FIFA said that Indonesia was removed from staging the 24-team tournament scheduled to start on May 20 “due to the current circumstances,” without specifying details. The decision followed a meeting in Doha between Indonesian soccer federation president Erick Thohir and FIFA president Gianni Infantino. Israel qualified in June last year for their first Under-20 World Cup, but the country’s participation in the official draw