As it already happened in London, for the 2012 Summer Olympics, Hsieh Su-wei will again carry all the hopes of Chinese Taipei in the women’s singles tournament on her shoulders. The 30-year-old isn’t defending great results from her previous appearance in the Olympic field. On the grass of Wimbledon, four years ago, she suffered a first round loss from her doubles partner Peng Shuai. She will compete in Rio Summer Olympics after being selected by the ITF, being Chinese Taipei's number one in singles ranking.

Chinese Taipei at the Summer Olympics

Chinese Taipei doesn’t have a history of records from women’s tennis at the Olympics. Hsieh, the last one competitor in singles, didn’t go past the first round. The women’s singles record for the country is currently still held by Wang Shi-ting, who reached the second round in 1996.

Hsieh could claim to have achieved the best result overall for her country in tennis; partnering Chuang Chia-jung, she reached the quarterfinals in London, losing only to the fourth-seed pair formed by Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka. The two will partner again for this year’s edition of the Olympics.

Hsieh Su-wei of Chinese Taipei in action at the London 2012 Olympic Games (Photo credit: Clive Brunskill/Getty Images)

Hsieh Su-wei in search of a good result in singles

While in her career she has achieved greater results in the doubles field (with two Grand Slam titles, four Premier Mandatory and two Premier 5, always partnering Peng Shuai, and 17 titles overall), she had won two titles in singles on the WTA tour (at the Malaysian Open and at the Guangzhou International Women’s Open, both in 2012), and 26 titles on the ITF circuit throughout the years. Her last and only title on clay happened back in 2006, though she had ended runner-up at the ITF 100k event in Marseille last month, losing in the final to Danka Kovinic.

Hsieh Su-wei and Peng Shuai posing with the 2014 French Open women's doubles trophy (Photo credit: Matthew Stockman/Getty Images)
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This year hadn’t been marked by big results in singles for the 30-year-old.

She achieved her best result at her home tournament in Kaohsiung, where she reached the semifinal, losing to Misaki Doi in straight sets. She then reached a clay-court quarterfinal in Prague, defeating Krystina Pliskova and rising star Ana Konjuh before losing to second seed Lucie Safarova in two close sets.