Taiwan�?s Chan Yung-jan watches her return to Kristina Mladenovic of France during their OEC Taipei Ladies Open semi-final at the Taipei Arena yesterday. PHOTO: LIN CHENG-KUNG, TAIPEI TIMES

The fifth game of the first set of Chan�?s match proved pivotal. First, a double-fault by Chan left the score at deuce, before the Taiwanese put a straightforward overhead shot into the net to give Mladenovic a break-point. The 16-year-old Frenchwoman then hit a good backhand that sent Chan the wrong way to earn the break and go 3-2 up.



Another break in the ninth game cost Chan the set.



Things looked bad for Chan when she dropped her serve in the second game of the next set and then twice failed to break Mladenovic�?s serve despite a host of opportunities.



The crowd seemed to sense the need for Chan to do something remarkable to get back into the match and became increasingly vocal as her plight worsened and she found herself 2-5 down and serving to stay in the tournament.



Chan didn�?t drop a point despite her perilous situation and the crowd were on their feet when she broke Mladenovic in the next game, although it took a double-fault from the Frenchwoman for Chan to win it.



Chan took the next game in style, before another disastrous double-fault by Mladenovic left Chan serving for the set.



The French teen wasn�?t finished though and pushed Chan all the way in a see-saw 12th game that the Taiwanese eventually claimed when Mladenovic hit a forehand long.



Chan seemed to be gaining in confidence, hitting powerful forehands and backhands, but throughout her tall opponent remained composed. After a near miss in third game, Chan broke Mladenovic in the seventh game.



Chan served for the match at 5-4, but the drama wasn�?t over as she failed to convert four match-points. Mladenovic then had a break-point, but could only put the ball into the net, before Chan ended the contest with a forehand that left her unseeded opponent stretching and unable to get her return back.



It was a great fightback by the Taiwanese, but Mladenovic deserves credit for pushing her more experienced opponent every inch of the way, making a mockery of her world ranking of 257.



After the excitement of the first contest, the second match of the day looked as if it might be an anti-climax as top seed Morita raced to a 5-0 lead in the first set of her clash with Chang. The Taiwanese third seed managed to claw back a couple of games, but the Japanese claimed a hard fought eighth game to take the set 6-2.



The second set was a different story as Chang overcame a rash of double-faults in the first game to give the world No. 78 a real run for her money, despite being broken in the third game.



The 18-year-old Taiwanese belied her slim build to hit the ball impressively hard and broke back in the eighth game. She wasn�?t afraid to go for her shots and produced some stunners as the set went into a tie-break.



The first five points went against serve, before Morita started to stamp her authority on proceedings and eventually claimed the tie-break 7-2.



Chan and Morita are both chasing their first title of the season, but the higher-ranked Morita, who has yet to drop a set at the tournament, should start as favorite for today�?s final. Chan, however, has showed in hard-fought quarter-final and semi-final wins that she will be no pushover.







Yesterday�?s doubles results:



‧ Chan Yung-jan and Chuang Chia-jung (Taiwan) defeated O. Kalashnikova (Georgia) and A. Panova (Russia) 6-1, 6-4



‧ Y. Basuki (Indonesia) and R. Zalameda (US) defeated Chan Chin-wei (Taiwan) and Yan Zi (China) 6-4, 6-2