The Williams sisters might have pioneered the sibling trend in the world of women’s tennis, but Taiwan’s own Ho Chiu-mei and Ho Chiu-hsiang are also strutting it in style.
Hailing from a small township in Chiayi, the 51-year-old and 47-year-old sisters are Taiwan’s medal hope in the Deaflympics women’s tennis doubles.
Thursday’s breezy 6-1, 6-0 triumph over their Japanese opponents Yachiyo Abe and Mizu Tsujioka, both 24, opened the door to the gold when the sisters do battle with 32-year-old Verena Fleckenstein and 18-year-old Heike Albrecht of Germany today.
PHOTO: CNA
“I promise to perform my best to secure the gold for Taiwan,” Ho Chiu-mei told a pre-match press conference, saying confidently her age would not detract from her skills.
Being the youngest in a family of five children, throughout her adult life Ho Chiu-mei hoped she would be the one to escape the family curse — gradual hearing loss, but it came as a crushing below when her hearing started to deteriorate in her 30s when her co-workers had to shout in order to communicate with her.
Losing her hearing also meant losing self-confidence, she said.
Thanks to the constant encouragement and persistent nudging from family and friends, Ho Chiu-mei decided to shake off the blues by again taking up the love her life — tennis — and when she did, it was as if she had never stopped.
Ho had her first taste of tennis in sixth grade when her physical education teacher Chang Yue-han, who doubled as a tennis coach, thought her long legs and long arms provided the ideal physique for an athlete.
Chang also convinced a few of Ho’s classmates to take up the sport and soon enough the team of small-town girls was winning local competitions and eventually triumphed at the national championships.
Ho Chiu-mei recalled that when Chang recruited them, none of the players had ever seen a racket before and the school did not even have a tennis court for them to practice on. A military general who lived nearby later decided to build a make-shift court on his property to accommodate the team.
Fast forward to the 1990s and Ho Chiu-mei’s hard work paid off as she made a name for herself in the tennis world when she was the national champion eight years running. In 1994, she brought honor to Taiwan by winning a bronze at the 1994 Asian Games in Hiroshima, Japan.
Just as she was standing at the pinnacle of her career, her hearing began to fail her to the point she could not hear when the racket hit the ball. A disheartened Ho Chiu-mei decided to drop out and start a family.
For years, Ho Chiu-mei would play casually, but never dreamed of returning to the sport as a professional.
When Taipei won the bid to host the Deaflympics, the Chinese Taipei Sports Association of the Deaf lobbied hard for her to participate. Eventually, she said yes and even started encouraging other deaf people to take up the sport.
“Tennis has brought much color to my life, even if it means I have to stand on a silent court,” she once said.
Ho Chiu-mei was not about to play the Deaflympics alone, however, at least not without her older sister Ho Chiu-hsiang.
Unlike Ho Chiu-mei, who started playing as a child, the older sister did not take her first swing of a racket until she was in her 30s.
Now 51, the older Ho said she picked up tennis two decades ago only because she wanted to keep fit and have fun at the same time.
The more she played, the more she liked the sport. Despite her age, Ho Chiu-hsiang was beating all the younger players with her famous backhand slice.
Even her younger sister was impressed with her skills, physical endurance and most of all her tenacity. So impressed that Hou Chiu-mei recommended that the association put her in the women’s doubles — as her partner.
When asked how she felt about her chance of a gold medal, in particular when facing players some 30 years younger than her, Ho Chiu-hsiang displayed her confidence and said: “There is a saying that old pieces of gingers are the spiciest ones. This is my first time and probably my last time to participate in an international event and I don’t think age is a problem. I will do my best to bring honor to our country.”
Marloon Herrera was crying — happy tears. With Cuba trailing in the fifth inning of its Little League World Series (LLWS) opener on Thursday, Herrera lined a two-run double to give his team the lead. When the Czech Republic, representing Europe-Africa, made a pitching change, he ran over to give his third base coach a hug. Cuba went on to win 4-1. It was the first game at this year’s tournament for both sides, but it was also the beginning of Cuba’s second appearance in the series ever — and it was emotional. “You breathe baseball in Cuba,” manager Everaldo Machado said on
Taiwan on Friday beat Australia 11-0 at the Little League World Series in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania. Taiwan are represented at the tournament by Taoyuan’s Gueishan Elementary School, who won the Asia-Pacific regional tournament to earn the trip to the US. Australia are represented by the Hills Red team from Sydney. Taiwan advanced to a game tomorrow against Santa Clara, representing Cuba, who won 4-1 against the Czech Republic’s Brno, the Europe-Africa regional qualifiers. Australian starter Sayre Howick had a tough time controlling his pitches at Volunteer Stadium, one of which allowed Taiwan to open their account. They scored six in the inning and
World Boxing, an international amateur boxing organization formed last year after a breakdown in relations between the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the International Boxing Association (IBA), has announced the admission of Taiwan, along with four other nations, into its growing list of members. In a statement released on its Web site on Friday, the Swiss- based organization said that in addition to Taiwan, admitted as Chinese Taipei, Bhutan, Ecuador, Fiji and Pakistan have also become members. The new members all have well-rounded national and international boxing programs as well as transparency in the leadership and management of their national boxing programs,
COOLED DOWN: Du Plessis apologized after the fight for comments about his Nigerian-born opponent, after Adesanya said he planned to take the belt back to Africa South African Dricus du Plessis yesterday took a flurry of body hits across four rounds before defeating Israel Adesanya by submission to retain his middleweight championship at UFC 305. After scoring some early takedowns, Du Plessis (22-2) had to withstand a flurry of body strikes from Adesanya through the middle rounds, which appeared to be taking a toll on the 30-year-old South African as the fight progressed. However, a left hook followed by three rights helped bring Adesanya down, giving Du Plessis the opening he wanted as he swiftly got the choke hold that forced the Nigerian-born New Zealander to tap out