Tennis players earn Taiwan's eighth gold at Asian Games

Guangzhou, China, Nov. 22 (CNA) Yang Tsung-hua and Chan Yung-jan came from behind to beat an Indian duo in the mixed doubles final of the Asian Games tennis competition in Guangzhou on Monday, bringing Taiwan's gold medal count at the games to eight. The second seeds defeated sixth-seeded Sania Mirza and Vishnu Vardhan 4-6, 6-1, 10-2 in just over an hour, giving Chan her second gold medal of the day after having also won the top prize in the women's doubles with Chuang Chia-jung. The first set was relatively close, but the Indians were able to convert two of their three break points while Yang and Chan could only win one of their seven break opportunities. But the Taiwanese pair tightened up their play in the second set, not yielding a break point while breaking the Indians' serve twice. That carried over to the super-tiebreaker, where the Taiwanese kept up the pressure on their opponents and never seemed in trouble. Taiwan's tennis players have done well at the Asian Games, earning three golds, two silvers and one bronze. In the women's doubles finals held earlier in the day Chan and Chuang beat compatriots Chang Kai-chen and Hsieh Su-wei to win the gold. With two golds and one silver, Chan, ranked 110th in the world in singles, emerged as the bigger winner of the Taiwanese tennis players. She will collect NT$7.5 million from the government for her three medals. As an incentive for Taiwan's athletes to do well at the Asian Games, the government will award cash prize to medal winners, awarding gold medal winners NT$3 million (US$98,700) , silver medal winners NT$1.5 million and bronze medal winners NT$900,000. Chan helped Taiwan win a silver medal in the team competition on Nov. 16. (By Bear Lee) enditem/ls