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.
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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