The 20-year-old Hsieh Su Wei spearheaded Chinese Taipei to win
the women's team title at the Asian Games tennis tournament early
Saturday morning.
The final match, which was postponed until Friday evening due to
continual rain breaks, was battled for four hours into early
Saturday morning when Chinese Taipei beat India 2-1 in the
Indian-packed Center Court of the Khalifa International Tennis and
Squash Complex.
In the first singles match, India's Shikha Uberoi, who impressed
the crowd with a never-say-die attitude in the semifinal against
Uzbekistan on Wednesday, had some trouble in holding her serve as
Chinese Taipei's Hsieh Su Wei managed to break twice to claim the
opening set 6-2 in just 22 minutes.
Uberoi failed to hit top gear again in the inception of the
second set, going down at 1-5, but she finally found some ground
strokes to level it at 5-5 before losing 7-5.
"She (Hsieh) played really well and hit a lot of winners. I did
not have a chance," said a disappointed Uberoi. "I fought in the
second set, and it was pretty close at some moment, but it was not
on top of my game. I panicked a little while she was so pushy."
In the second singles match, India's top player and
66th-rankedSania Mirza had no trouble in sailing through Chinese
Taipei's Chan Yung Jan 6-2, 6-2, helping India level the score at
1-1.
In the doubles match, Hsieh Su Wei partnered with Chuang Chia
Jung to destroy India's Sania Mirza/ Shikha Uberoi 7-6 (2),
6-1.
It's the second time Chinese Taipei took the women's team title
at the Asian Games. They claimed the crown at the 1998 Asian
Gamesin Bangkok, where they beat China in the final.
(Xinhua News Agency December 9, 2006)