World No. 7 Chou Tien-chen yesterday fought back to victory over Brian Yang as Taiwan downed Canada 4-1 to open their Sudirman Cup Finals campaign in Xiamen, China.
Taiwan, who are aiming for their first Sudirman Cup title, and four-time champions South Korea grabbed unsurprising opening wins in their Group B ties of the tournament played once every two years.
Nevertheless, Canada put Taiwan, lacking the strength of former world No. 1 Tai Tzu-ying, to the test.
Photo: AFP
In the opening match, Taiwan’s Ye Hong-wei and Hu Ling-fang, mixed doubles’ world Nos. 24 and 8 respectively, blew past Canada’s Kevin Lee and Josephine Wu 22-20, 21-14 in a speedy 31 minutes, despite a close opening game, on Xiamen Fenghuang Gymnasium’s court 1.
Former world No. 2 Chou struggled in the men’s singles against Yang, whom he dominated 21-12, 21-9 in the opening round of the India Open in January.
Yang did not make it quite that easy this time, forcing Chou to work for his 21-18 opening-game victory, before staging a 21-13 comeback in the second.
However, Chou’s experience — he is 12 years older than his 23-year-old Toronto-born opponent — paid off, as the Taiwanese edged Yang 21-18 in the final game to secure his eighth win over the Canadian.
In the next match, Michelle Li took advantage of Taiwan’s weak spot, women’s singles, to blow past world No. 24 Chiu Pin-chian 21-10, 21-16 in just 37 minutes, giving Canada its only win in the tie.
Although Taiwan boasts strength in men’s singles and doubles, with robust mixed doubles depth, without shuttler star Tai in women’s singles, they are relying on Chiu and world No. 23 Hsu Wen-chi.
Tai, who underwent knee surgery in December last year, announced in April 2023 that she would retire after last year’s season.
In the men’s doubles, two-time Olympic gold-medalist Wang Chi-lin and partner Chiu Hsiang-chieh breezed past Jonathan Lai and Nyl Yakura 21-15, 21-8 in 28 minutes.
In the final match, the world No. 15 women’s doubles duo of Hsieh Pei-shan and Hung En-tzu defeated Jackie Dent and Crystal Lai 21-14, 21-17.
Taiwan today face the Czech Republic, who lost 4-1 to South Korea.
Thailand were impressive in Group A as they crushed Hong Kong 5-0, giving themselves a good chance to finish inside the top two and qualify for the quarter-finals of the tournament, which runs until Sunday.
Defending champions China, who have won the Cup 13 times, swept Algeria 5-0, while former winners Indonesia were beating England 4-0 and India were winning 3-0 against Denmark as of press time last night.
Additional reporting by Reuters
Wilyer Abreu watched the ball leave the park and tossed his bat high in the air. His Venezuela teammates streamed out of the dugout in celebration. The comeback was on and the win over the reigning World Baseball Classic (WBC) champion Japan was within reach. Japan, their 11-game WBC winning streak on the line, held a 5-4 lead in the sixth inning of Saturday’s thrilling quarter-final matchup when Abreu put his team ahead with the biggest swing of the game: a three-run shot off Hiromi Itoh that sent the loanDepot Park crowd into a passionate roar and helped seize Venezuela’s 8-5
A BREATHLESS BATTLE: France clinched the championship in a vicious back-and-forth match with England, denying Ireland the title by just a few points France won back-to-back Six Nations titles after beating England 48-46 on a last-second penalty-kick by Thomas Ramos in a thriller for the ages on Saturday. England scored their seventh try in the 77th minute and converted for 46-45. If the score held for a few more minutes, Ireland would have been crowned the champion. But France pressed yet again with 14 men, lost possession, regained it, and earned two simultaneous penalties after the fulltime siren. Captain Antoine Dupont debated with referee Nika Amashukeli where the penalty spots were. Ramos, who did not miss a goal-kick all night, finally lined up his seventh
Home runs are greeted with a celebratory shot of espresso and the donning of an Armani jacket. Victories are marked with bottles of red wine while the soaring voice of opera singer Andrea Bocelli echoes through the locker room. Welcome to baseball, Italian-style. Written off as 80-1 underdogs before the World Baseball Classic started, Italy’s fairytale tournament has carried them all the way to today’s (Taipei time) semi-finals in Miami against Venezuela. On Saturday, Italy — who scored a stunning upset of a star-studded US lineup during the pool phase — kept their unbeaten campaign alive with a nail-biting 8-6
Kimi Antonelli became Formula 1’s second-youngest race winner with a composed drive to victory for Mercedes in an eventful Chinese Grand Prix yesterday. The 19-year-old Italian was the youngest pole position starter and briefly lost the lead to Lewis Hamilton of Ferrari at the start, but retook it soon after and was in control after that. “We did it! We did it!” Antonelli shouted to his team on the radio amid laughs and whoops. It was another 1-2 finish for Mercedes to start the season as Antonelli’s teammate George Russell came through a battle with both Ferraris to finish second. Lewis Hamilton was
RSS