Latisha Chan

Latisha Chan (born 17 August 1989), formerly known by her Chinese name Chan Yung-jan (; ), is a Taiwanese tennis player who is a former world No. 1 in doubles. She has won 33 career titles in doubles, including a Grand Slam title at the 2017 US Open alongside Martina Hingis, as well as nine at WTA 1000-level. Chan also finished runner-up at three other Grand Slam events, the 2007 and 2015 Australian Open, and the 2007 US Open. In mixed doubles, she has won three Grand Slam titles: the 2018 French Open, 2019 French Open, and 2019 Wimbledon Championships, all with Ivan Dodig. Highlights of her singles career include reaching the semifinals at the 2006 Japan Open and the final at the Bangkok Open in 2007. She reached a career-high singles ranking of No. 50 on 11 June 2007, and became world No. 1 in doubles on 23 October 2017, the second Taiwanese player to do so, after Hsieh Su-wei. She again topped the doubles rankings on 13 August 2018, and has spent a total of 34 weeks as world No. 1.

Early life, family and education

Chan is the elder sister of professional tennis player Chan Hao-ching (also known as Angel Chan). The sisters have played together in many doubles tournaments.

Latisha Chan is pursuing her Ph.D. degree in Transnational Sport Management and Innovation at National Taiwan Sport University.

Junior performance

Chan started playing in the ITF Junior Circuit in 2002 and reached the semifinal stage at her first ITF junior event. With solid performances, both in junior and challenger events, her combined junior ranking reached No. 2 on May 24, 2004. However, her most significant junior victory came at the 2004 Australian Open Junior Championships, where she partnered Sun Shengnan to win the doubles trophy. The achievement hinted at the emergence of a talented doubles player.

Professional career

2003–2005

While still a junior, Chan entered her very first pro-circuit event in Taiwan in 2003. She reached the semifinals in singles and the quarterfinals in doubles. She started her professional career in 2004. By the end of the year, she already was the singles title holder of three $10k events, including Colombo, Jakarta, and Taipei. She also won three doubles titles at Jakarta, Haibara, and Mount Gambier.
Her 2005 season got off to a strong start with a win at a $25k event in Taipei. She also won a $50k event in Fukuoka. Later that year, she qualified for the US Open, but failed to defeat Serena Williams in the first round. After the US Open, she played two qualifying events in Beijing and Seoul, but failed to enter the main draw. However, she teamed up with Chuang Chia-jung to win her first tour-level doubles title in Seoul.

2006

Chan played in the qualifying events of all four Grand Slam tournaments and qualified into the main draws in Wimbledon and the US Open, but failed to beat resurgent Australian Alicia Molik and Belgian Kirsten Flipkens, respectively. Her breakthrough and first tour-level win came at the Tokyo Open, where she reached the semifinal stage by defeating local favourite and two-time winner Ai Sugiyama. The victory marked her first top-30 win. She also participated in the doubles event and reached the finals, once again partnering Chuang Chia-jung.

On the Challenger Tour, she won the singles titles in Melbourne, Fukuoka, Kurume, and Kaohsiung. Together with regular partner Chuang, she also won the doubles titles in Sydney, Gosford, Fukuoka, Kurume, and Kaohsiung. After her victory in Kaohsiung, she surged into the top 100 and was ranked No. 73 in singles.

2007

To establish herself at the WTA Tour level, Chan only participated in those events at the beginning of 2007. She entered the main draws of the Australian Open, at Pattaya, Bangalore, and Indian Wells, but failed to advance past the first round. In Miami, she reached the second round by defeating Nuria Llagostera Vives, before losing to top seed Maria Sharapova.

Chan finally found her footing after entering the clay court season. In Charleston, she qualified into the main draw, and stunned No. 39 ranked Séverine Brémond in two sets to set up a rematch against Serena Williams. Chan was 5–3 up before Serena retired with a groin injury. However, in the third round, she was defeated by Venus Williams in straight sets.

To improve her singles game, Chan entered three ITF pro events after Charleston and won all three of them. With the success in three events, her ranking rose to a career-high No. 50 on June 11. In Bangkok, Chan reached her first WTA singles final, but lost to No. 49 ranked Flavia Pennetta, in two sets.

Her singles achievements aside, Chan also had success in doubles in 2007. Awarded with a wildcard entry, Chan and Chuang reached the finals of the Australian Open, which was Chan's first Grand Slam doubles event. On their way to the final, they defeated 2006 US Open doubles finalists Dinara Safina and Katarina Srebotnik, and 2006 Australian Open and Wimbledon champions Yan Zi and Zheng Jie. In February, Chan and Chuang participated in two more events. They reached the final at both Pattaya and Bangalore, and won the doubles title in the latter.

In their Indian Wells debut, Chan and Chuang again stormed into the final with back-to-back wins over 2006 Australian Open and Wimbledon champs Yan Zi and Zheng Jie in the quarterfinals, and 2006 US Open champions Vera Zvonareva and Nathalie Dechy in the semifinals. However, they lost the final to 2006 Roland Garros champions Lisa Raymond and Samantha Stosur in straight sets. Had they won the final match, they would have defeated every 2006 Grand Slam champion team in one single event. At that point, they had made it into the final in all six tour-level doubles events they had entered. Their finals streak was broken in Miami, when they lost to Raymond and Stosur in the semifinal.

2008

At the German Open in Berlin, Chan became the last player whom top-ranked Justine Henin ever defeated before she retired the following week. Chan represented her country at the Beijing Olympics, in both singles and doubles.

2009

Chan started the season with an unexpected lead of 5–1 against world No. 4, Elena Dementieva, in their first-round match in Auckland. Chan ultimately lost the match to the eventual champion. After that, her results were uninspiring other than winning a round at the Australian Open, her first time to do so.

Chan was diagnosed with a fatigue fracture in her left foot, which stopped her season for three months after the Miami Open to when the grass-court season kicked off. She suffered quite a number of upsets after her comeback, but rebounded just in time for the Asian tour in the autumn. She delighted home crowds by sweeping both the singles and doubles (with Chuang) titles in the Taipei $100k tournament. For the fourth year in a row, Chan finished the season in the top 100.

On the doubles court, Chan shocked the world-number-one team of Cara Black and Liezel Huber with Monica Niculescu, in the quarterfinals of the Premier-level tournament in Stanford. They were defeated by Serena and Venus Williams in the final after taking out another seeded pair, Maria Kirilenko and Sorana Cîrstea.

2010–2014

At the 2010 US Open, Chan beat two former WTA top-50s, Anne Keothavong and Tamira Paszek, to make her first round of 32 in a Grand Slam tournament, her previous best results had been the round of 64 at the 2008 US Open, 2009 Australian Open, and 2010 Wimbledon Championships. In the third round, she lost 1–6, 0–6 to top seed and world No. 2, Caroline Wozniacki.

At the 2011 Australian Open, she reached the final of mixed doubles with Paul Hanley, their first Grand Slam final. Along the way, they defeated the defending champions, and fourth-seeded Cara Black and Leander Paes, in two set-tiebreakers. However, this team lost the final to second seeds Daniel Nestor and Katarina Srebotnik in three sets.

Chan reached the semifinals of the 2012 Carlsbad Open, losing to Marion Bartoli in three sets.

2014, she lost the title match of the Taipei Challenger to Vitalia Diatchenko, in three sets.

2015: Australian Open doubles final

Chan lost her third Grand Slam doubles final at the Australian Open. She and her sister won their fourth WTA doubles title together at the Cincinnati Open, and by doing so, now have the second-most doubles titles for a pair of sisters in WTA history after only Serena and Venus Williams. The Chans previous three WTA doubles titles came at Shenzhen in 2013, Eastbourne in 2014, and Pattaya City in 2015. Cincinnati represents their biggest title yet, their first at the Premier-5 level. They would go on to win another title at the Japan Open in Tokyo.

2017: US Open doubles champion, world No. 1

In February 2017, Chan teamed up with former world No. 1, Martina Hingis, for the women's doubles competition at the Dubai Championships. Hingis had split from short-time partner CoCo Vandeweghe due to limited success together. In March, Chan won at Indian Wells with Hingis, as they defeated Lucie Hradecká and Kateřina Siniaková in the final. This was the first Premier Mandatory title for Chan, the first big title of her career. The team added titles in Madrid and Rome with final victories over Tímea Babos and Andrea Hlaváčková and Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina, respectively.

Chan and Hingis played their first Grand Slam tournament together at the French Open. They advanced to the semifinals, where they lost to the eventual champions, Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Lucie Šafářová.

In the Summer Universiade in August, Chan teamed up with her sister Hao-ching to a gold medal in the women's doubles. Then, Chan withdrew from the mixed doubles semifinals due to heatstroke. This move drew criticism from her partner, Hsieh Cheng-peng, and the public, who interpreted the event as Chan abandoning Hsieh to prepare for the US Open. Chan and Hingis won their first Grand Slam women's doubles title together at the US Open when they defeated Hradecká and Siniaková in straight sets. This was their seventh title of the season. After the US Open, Chan released a statement apologizing to Hsieh.

They would win their next title at the Wuhan Open, their third Premier-5 crown of the year. The following tournament, the season's last Premier Mandatory event, they would win their ninth title of the season at the Beijing event. That means they won three out of the four Premier Mandatory events in 2017, only missing out on the Miami Open where they lost in the semifinals. It also meant that they won six of the nine Premier-5/Premier-Mandatory tournaments of the season. Chan and Hingis finished the season as joint world No. 1, only the fifth time in WTA history that a team had shared the year-end top spot.

2018: Struggles with form, French Open mixed-doubles title

Chan struggled after Hingis retired. Apart from winning her maiden mixed-doubles title at French Open with Ivan Dodig, she did not win any titles during her 33-week reign as world No. 1. She finally dropped out of that position after losing in the second round at Roland Garros. After a Premier title in San Jose (with Květa Peschke) and a Premier-5 final in Montreal (with Ekaterina Makarova), Chan returned to the No.-1 ranking in doubles only for one week before dropping out of top ten later in the season.

2019: Renewed doubles success; two mixed-doubles titles

Chan re-united with her sister Hao-ching at the start of the 2019 season, and found immediate success. They reached the final of the Brisbane International, and followed that up with wins in the Hobart and Doha championships and a run to the quarterfinals in the Australian Open. In March, they reached the semifinals at Indian Wells, in June, they won the Eastbourne International, and in September, they won the Pan Pacific Open, beating sisters Hsieh Su-wei and Hsieh Yu-chieh in the final, to record their 14th WTA tournament win together. It was the first time the sisters had won four tournaments in a single season. The following week, they reached the quarterfinals of the Wuhan Open. On 7 October, they became the fifth team to qualify for the 2019 WTA Finals where they did not do well, losing all three of their matches in the group stage.

In mixed doubles, Chan and Dodig won their second French Open title and followed it up with the Wimbledon title.

Equipment

The Chan sisters use Wilson racquets. They are also sponsored by Taiwan Mobile, EVA Air, and French apparel company Lacoste.

Career statistics

Grand Slam performance timelines

Singles

Women's doubles

Mixed doubles

Significant finals

Grand Slam finals

Women's doubles: 4 (1 title, 3 runner-ups)

Mixed doubles: 4 (3 titles, 1 runner-up)

Premier-Mandatory/Premier-5 tournament finals

Doubles: 12 (9 titles, 3 runner-ups)

See also

* Sport in Taiwan

References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Chan, Latisha
1989 births
Living people
Sportspeople from Taichung
Taiwanese female tennis players
Taiwanese people of Hakka descent
Hakka sportspeople
French Open champions
Olympic tennis players of Taiwan
Tennis players at the 2008 Summer Olympics
Tennis players at the 2016 Summer Olympics
Asian Games gold medalists for Chinese Taipei
Asian Games silver medalists for Chinese Taipei
Asian Games bronze medalists for Chinese Taipei
Asian Games medalists in tennis
Tennis players at the 2006 Asian Games
Tennis players at the 2010 Asian Games
Tennis players at the 2014 Asian Games
Tennis players at the 2018 Asian Games
Grand Slam (tennis) champions in girls' doubles
Medalists at the 2006 Asian Games
Medalists at the 2010 Asian Games
Medalists at the 2014 Asian Games
Universiade medalists in tennis
Medalists at the 2018 Asian Games
Universiade gold medalists for Chinese Taipei
Universiade bronze medalists for Chinese Taipei
Australian Open (tennis) junior champions
Grand Slam (tennis) champions in mixed doubles
US Open (tennis) champions
Wimbledon champions
Grand Slam (tennis) champions in women's doubles
Tennis players at the 2020 Summer Olympics
WTA number 1 ranked doubles tennis players
ITF World Champions