A long-festering personal feud between Taiwanese tennis stars Hsieh Su-wei and Chan Hao-ching erupted at the US Open, featuring taunts, an umpire confrontation, and an intentional post-match handshake snub.
All the madness went down in the Women’s Doubles Round of 16 at Flushing Meadows, where the fourth-seeded pairing of Hsieh and her unfiltered Latvian partner, Jeļena Ostapenko, sent Chan and Aussie Maya Joint packing in a straight-sets, 6-4, 6-4 beat down.
Mid-match, Ostapenko and Hsieh accused Chan’s coach of openly taunting them from the player’s box by sarcastically applauding unforced errors and double faults in Mandarin.
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Because Ostapenko does not speak Mandarin, Hsieh translated the remarks on the court.
Ostapenko called the behavior disrespectful, demanded a Chinese translator be brought to the court, and yelled: “They do this because they know they cannot beat us, because they’re so much worse than us.”
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Upon securing match point, Ostapenko celebrated by screaming directly at Chan’s coaching box.
Here’s where the nasty snub went down.
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At the net, Chan shook Ostapenko’s hand but pointedly snubbed Hsieh, walking straight past her Taiwanese compatriot without extending a hand or making eye contact.
Animosity between the pros stems from a long-running domestic turf war over resources, national team backing, and internal sports politics within Taiwan. Both competitors represent Taiwan internationally under the “Chinese Taipei” name mandated by governing bodies.
Hsieh, a former doubles world No. 1, has long accused the Chinese Taipei Tennis Association of favoring Chan and her elder sister, Latisha Chan, in allocating funding, sponsorships and coaching credentials.
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The beef hit a boiling point at the 2016 Rio Olympics when Taiwan’s tennis brass stiffed Hsieh’s coach to favor the Chans. Hsieh quit the Games in protest, sparking a decade-long grudge that had just exploded in Flushing Meadows.
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