Chan Yung-jan (left) and Swiss partner Martina Hingis;photo courtesy of CNA
New York, Sept. 10 (CNA) Taiwan tennis player Chan Yung-jan, teaming up with Swiss partner Martina Hingis, won the women's doubles title at the U.S. Open Sunday.
The tournament's second-seeded pair beat seventh-seeded Lucie Hradecka and Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic 6-3, 6-2 to win the title at Flushing Meadows in New York.
It was the first time Chan has won a Grand Slam title, while it was the 25th Grand Slam for Hingis.
This was also the pairing's seventh women's doubles title of the year and Hingis' 13th women's doubles Grand Slam championship.
After winning the championship, Chan told the press that she had dreamed of winning a Grand Slam title since she was a child. "I am very happy that my dream came true."
After the win, the pair will share US$675,000 in prize money.
The last time Chan made it to the final of the U.S. Open was in 2007, when she partnered with Chuang Chia-jung, another Taiwanese tennis player, losing in the women's doubles final.
Meanwhile, Taiwan's representative to the United States, Stanley Kao, on Sunday sent a letter of congratulations to Chan on her victory.
Kao also extended congratulations to her younger sister Chan Hao-ching who with her partner Michael Venus of New Zealand was runner-up in the mixed doubles at the U.S. Open on Saturday, losing to Hingis and Britain's Jamie Murray 6-1 4-6 10-8.
It is the first time two Taiwanese tennis players have reached the finals of a Grand Slam competition in separate events.
The strong showing of the Chan sisters at the U.S. Open also marks a turnaround in the fortunes of the Chan family after their home in Dongshi township, Taichung, was destroyed by the 921 earthquake in 1999, when the sisters were just 10 and six years old.
