Lu Yen-hsun (as he is known to his ma) in action at Wimbley. Thanks to Chang Yuchun for the shot.
Yen-Hsun Lu’s upset of Andy Roddick at Wimbledon was more than just a personal victory. With several compatriots overcoming undeniable challenges to deliver on similar potential, the future is looking brighter for tennis in Chinese Taipei. By James Baron
In a cramped corner shop under a bridge in Chinese Taipei, Tommy Tang ruminates over a career that passed most of his countrymen by. “There wasn’t all this information when I was around,” he says. “We didn’t know anything.”
On the wall behind the counter is a poster capturing the highlight of his time in tennis: a consolatory over-the-net handshake from Ivan Lendl. Tang scraped a couple of games during their 1980 encounter – the first round of the defunct ATP Taipei carpet tournament. “That’s my brother,” he fibs, motioning to the mottled sepia print. “He passed away a while ago.”
This is an excerpt from a feature in the October issue of Australian Tennis Magazine. Download a pdf of the rest of the story here.
Dear Shirley,
Surely a note is needed on the Australian Canberran magazine’s erroneous usage and bizarre inconsistency with “Chinese Taipei.” Someone should tell the editors in the Britisher Land Down Under to pull their asses out of their heads. A friend pointed out this from Jon Wertheim’s Sports Illustrated coverage of Lu’s match against Roddick at Wimbleton:
“Note to the broadcasters: Despite what the ATP media guide might say, Lu is not from Chinese Taipei. He is from Taiwan, the capital of which is Taipei. Lu called his people ‘Taiwanese’ and we should, too.”
Full article:
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/writers/jon_wertheim/06/28/roddick.exits/index.html
Maternal
I knew they’d insist on changing my ‘Taiwans’ to ‘Chinese Taipeis’ in keeping with internationally-accredited sports bodies’ (IOCC et al) kowtowing to China but the inconsistency was indeed frustrating. Aside from leaving the one ‘Taiwan’ in, they also altered quotes and changed ‘Taipei’ (not Taiwan) to ‘Chinese Taipei’ in the first sentence, which obviously makes no sense.
Typo in third para, inconsistent rendering of Chinese names … sigh.
Thanks for the link. Fair play to that man. The Beeb tend to go with Taiwan now, too – encouraging.
Oh – don’t call me Surely.