But she nearly gave up her favorite sport four years later when the island's worst earthquake in September 1999 left her family in financial stress.

"The quake destroyed our house and we suffered great losses. My mother asked me at that time if I wanted to contiune playing tennis, my answer was positive," Chan recalled.

"She then decided to move the family to Taipei and give me three years to try."

Chan, whose career-high singles ranking was 50 in June 2007, said this life-changing experience helped her to be brave and better cope with stress.

Chinese Taipei is not known as a tennis powerhouse and before Chan its best-known player was Wang Shi-ting, who won six tour titles and reached a career-high singles ranking of 26 in 1993.

Wang played Grand Slams between 1992 and 1999 but never got beyond the third round.

In recent years the island has enjoyed a tennis boom with young players like Chan making their way toward to the top.

Yang Tsung-hua won the junior boys singles title at the French Open in June while Hsieh Su-wei became the island's first player to reach a Grand Slam fourth round for women's singles at the Australian Open earlier this year.

Besides Chan and Chuang, Chinese Taipei's top male tennis player Lu Yen-hsun will play the Olympic singles.

(Agencies via China Daily July 23, 2008)