Latisha Chan (born 17 August 1989), formerly known by her Chinese name Chan Yung-jan (; ), is a Taiwanese professional

tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

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

Career

Juniors

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.

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 Serena Jameka Williams (born September 26, 1981) is an American former professional tennis player. She was ranked as the List of WTA number 1 ranked singles tennis players, world No. 1 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WT ...

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 Bengaluru, also known as Bangalore (List of renamed places in India#Karnataka, its official name until 1 November 2014), is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the southern States and union territories of India, Indian state of Kar ...

, and Indian Wells, but failed to advance past the first round. In

Miami Miami is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a populat ...

, she reached the second round by defeating Nuria Llagostera Vives, before losing to top seed

Maria Sharapova Maria Yuryevna Sharapova (, ; born 19 April 1987) is a Russian former professional tennis player. She was ranked as the world No. 1 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) for 21 weeks. Sharapova won 36 WTA Tour-level sin ...

. Chan finally found her footing after entering the

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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

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, 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

, 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

, 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 Elena Viacheslavovna Dementieva (, ; born 15 October 1981) is a Russian former professional tennis player. She was WTA rankings, ranked world No. 3 in women's singles and world No. 5 in women's doubles by the Women's Tennis Association, WTA. Dem ...

, in their first-round match in

Auckland Auckland ( ; ) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. It has an urban population of about It is located in the greater Auckland Region, the area governed by Auckland Council, which includes outlying rural areas and ...

. 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 major final. Along the way, they defeated the defending champions, and fourth-seeded Cara Black and

Leander Paes Leander Adrian Paes ( ; born 17 June 1973) is an Indian former professional tennis player and the first Asian man to be inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame. He is regarded as one of the greatest doubles tennis players of all-tim ...

, 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 Shenzhen is a prefecture-level city in the province of Guangdong, China. A Special economic zones of China, special economic zone, it is located on the east bank of the Pearl River (China), Pearl River estuary on the central coast of Guangdong ...

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 Women's 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

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and

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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 The French Open (), also known as Roland-Garros (), is a tennis tournament organized by the French Tennis Federation annually at Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France. It is chronologically the second of the four Grand Slam (tennis), Grand Slam ...

. They advanced to the semifinals, where they lost to the eventual champions, Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Lucie Šafářová. In the

Summer Universiade The FISU World University Games, formerly the Universiade, is an international multi-sport event, organized for university athletes by the International University Sports Federation (FISU). The former name is a portmanteau of the words "Universi ...

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 Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

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

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 they found immediate success. They reached the final of the Brisbane International, and followed that up with wins in the

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and

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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

title and followed it up with the Wimbledon title.

2024: Paris Olympics

She took part in the women's doubles at the Paris Olympics alongside her sister, Chan Hao-ching, but they lost in the first round to

Barbora Krejčíková Barbora Krejčíková (; born 18 December 1995) is a Czech professional tennis player. She has been WTA rankings, ranked as high as world No. 2 in singles and List of WTA number 1 ranked doubles tennis players, world No. 1 in doubles by the Wome ...

and Kateřina Siniaková.

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

''Only main-draw results in WTA Tour, Grand Slam tournaments, Fed Cup/Billie Jean King Cup and Olympic Games are included in win–loss records and career statistics.''

Singles

Women's doubles

Mixed doubles

Significant finals

Grand Slam tournaments

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

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

Notes

References

External links