OLYMPICS/Taiwan's top tennis players confirm partner picks for Paris Olympics

Taipei, June 14 (CNA) Two of Taiwan's women tennis stars have chosen their preferred partners for the women's doubles at the Paris Olympics, according to the Chinese Taipei Tennis Association (CTTA).

Hsieh Su-wei (謝淑薇), world No. 2 in women's doubles, picked 20-year-old Tsao Chia-yi (曹家宜), ranked No. 153 in women's doubles in the world, on Wednesday to partner with her at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, France, CTTA Secretary-General Jimmy Wang (王凌華) told CNA later that same day.

The 38-year-old Hsieh is confirmed to be playing in Paris due to her current world ranking.

On Thursday Wang confirmed that Chan Hao-ching (詹皓晴), world No. 28, had selected her older sister Latisha Chan (詹詠然) as her partner for the upcoming Olympics.

The younger Chan's ranking gives her a good chance of being selected for the Olympics, but her confirmation is still pending.

If the Chan sisters compete, it will be their third time playing together at the event.

However, the older Chan has not participated in a tennis competition since October last year due to personal health issues and is only on the roster through protected ranking.

This mechanism allows players who have not played for an extended period due to injury or illness to use their pre-injury ranking to gain entry into tournaments upon their return.

According to the Olympic tennis regulations, each nation may send up to two teams to both the men's and women's doubles events.

The top 10 doubles players in the world can designate another player from their country ranked in the world's top 300 as their teammate in Paris, which enabled Hsieh to pick Tsao.

The latest world rankings were released on June 10 following the French Open.

Wang said that the CTTA will hold a meeting later Friday to discuss the team-ups before presenting the list to the Chinese Taipei Olympic Committee and the National Sports Training Center for consideration. It will then be submitted to the International Tennis Federation.