Taiwan’s three representatives managed to avoid the big guns in the first-round draw for this year’s Wimbledon singles tournaments, but all face potentially daunting tasks should they make the second round.
The nation’s sole male representative at the tournament which starts tomorrow, is Lu Yen-hsun, who faces Argentina’s Horacio Zeballos in the first round. The 25-year-old Argentine is a late developer, being named ATP newcomer of the year last year having previously never had a year-end ranking inside the world’s top 200.
The left-hander from Mar del Plata will be an unknown quantity for Lu, because despite a useful current ranking of 42, he has never played on the grass courts of Wimbledon before and has had most of his success on clay.
FIRST-ROUND WINNERS
Like Lu, Zeballos was a first-round winner at last week’s Wimbledon warm-up tournament in Eastbourne, beating Lukas Lacko of Slovakia before losing in straight sets to Ukraine’s Illya Marchenko.
Lu beat world No. 85 Karol Beck of Slovakia 6-4, 6-4 at the grass-court tournament on England’s south coast, before losing to world No. 47 Alexandr Dolgopolov of Ukraine 7-6, 1-6, 2-6.
The previous week in his first outing on grass this year, Lu suffered a straight sets loss against France’s Nicolas Mahut at the AEGON Championships at Queen’s Club in London.
Should the Taiwanese manage to equal his best-ever Wimbledon performance by reaching the second round, as he did in 2004 and 2005, he faces a probable showdown with No. 17 seed Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia.
WOMEN’S SINGLES
Taiwan’s No. 1 female player, Chan Yung-jan, must beat veteran Patty Schnyder if she is to reach the second round at Wimbledon for the first time. The 31-year-old Swiss is perhaps past her best, with a ranking of 59, down from the lofty heights of No. 7 that she reached in 2005, but she is still a useful performer.
Should Chan beat Schnyder she is likely to face No. 12 seed Nadia Petrova of Russia, twice a quarter-finalist at Wimbledon with a highest ranking of No. 3 in the world.
Nineteen-year-old Chang Kai-chen’s first-ever match at Wimbledon will be against Arantxa Rus of the Netherlands. Rus, also 19, will likewise be making her debut in SW19. The winner faces a probable showdown with third seed Caroline Wozniacki in the second round.
DOUBLES
As usual, Taiwan’s best hopes of a Grand Slam success lie in the doubles competitions. Chan and Lu will be competing along with compatriots Hsieh Su-wei and Chuang Chia-jung. Chan and China’s Zheng Jie are seeded ninth in the women’s doubles, with Hsieh and Russia’s Alla Kudryatseva seeded 16th.
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