Taiwanese tennis star Hsieh Su-wei and partner Tsao Chia-yi on Tuesday automatically advanced to the women’s doubles quarter-finals at the Paris Olympics, while the Chan sisters’ campaign ended early.
Hsieh and Tsao were set to play Ukrainians Marta Kostyuk and Dayana Yastremska on Roland Garros’ Court 6, but the seventh seeds withdrew, after Kostyuk advanced to the women’s singles quarter-finals.
The withdrawal sent the Taiwanese to a quarter-final that could see them face top seeds Coco Gauff and Jessica Pegula of the US.
Photo: Reuters
The Americans were yesterday to play the Czech Republic’s Karolina Muchova and Linda Noskova in the second round.
Hsieh, who has seven Grand Slam doubles titles under her belt, is eyeing an Olympics medal after making it to the quarter-finals at the London Games in 2012. She has had a remarkable year already, bagging the women’s doubles and mixed doubles titles at the Australian Open.
The 38-year-old’s partner, Tsao, 20, last month won the women’s doubles title at the Swedish Open with Thailand’s Peangtarn Plipuech.
Photo: AFP
The Olympic campaign of Taiwanese sisters Latisha Chan and Chan Hao-ching ended after a delayed opening round, losing 6-4, 6-0 to the Czech Republic’s Barbora Krejcikova and Katerina Siniakova.
Latisha Chan, who turns 35 on Aug. 17 and has participated in three editions of the Olympics, has struggled with medical issues and had not participated in a formal tournament since Sept. 30 last year, when the sisters won the women’s doubles title at the Asian Games in Hangzhou, China.
The sisters in 2016 made it to the quarter-finals of the women’s doubles in Rio de Janeiro.
Photo: AFP
Meanwhile, Tokyo bronze-medalist Huang Hsiao-wen was knocked out of the women’s under-54kg round-of-16 boxing event by top seed Stanimira Petrova of Bulgaria amid controversy.
Huang was tied with Petrova after the first two rounds. In the final round, she was stepped on by the Bulgarian veteran and lost her footing, but the referee ruled that she was brought down by a punch and even started a count.
The incident led the judges to give the round, and the bout, to Petrova.
Huang struggled to hold back tears during a post-bout interview, saying that the referee had a “huge impact” on the fight’s outcome.
In swimming, Eddie Wang equaled his performance in Tokyo three years earlier by reaching the men’s 200m butterfly semi-finals.
Wang clocked the eighth-fastest time in the heats at 1 minute, 55.32 seconds, but finished 11th in the semi-finals with a time of 1:55.07, 1.57 seconds behind top contender Leon Marchand of France and 0.45 seconds outside the top eight who advanced to the finals.
“I didn’t achieve my goal [of advancing to the final] this time. I’ll continue to work hard,” Wang said.
In Tokyo, Wang broke Taiwan’s national record in the same event’s heat with a time of 1:54.44, but did not advance to the final after finishing 13th in that semi-final.
In shooting, Yang Kun-pi said he would focus on Los Angeles after finishing 12th in men’s trap qualification. On Monday and Tuesday he racked up 121 points, one point short of the top six who advanced to the final, but still a personal Olympic best.
“I will now work toward the Los Angeles Olympics, and I aim to become the first athlete from Taiwan to secure a spot in the final,” he said.
Tuesday was also a disappointing day for Taiwan’s three male archers, who all won their first-round matches in the individual competition, but lost in the second round.
Tai Yu-hsuan, who had the best chance to advance to the quarter-finals, after going to a one-arrow shoot-out with France’s Thomas Chirault. Tai lost when the Frenchman fired a 10 to his eight.
Lin Zih-siang was overwhelmed by South Korean Kim Woojin, who scored 10s on eight of his nine arrows, while Tang Chih-chun performed well with five 10s and seven 9s against Tokyo gold medalist Mete Gazoz of Turkey.
However, Gazoz was slightly better with seven 10s and five 9s, to take the match 6-2.
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