Few U-20 tennis players are giving as much to talk about as the young Shang Juncheng. Of Chinese origin, born in the city of Beijing in 2005, this 17-year-old boy is already dazzling in a great way on the professional circuit.
Beyond his outstanding results despite his young age, the Asian also shows signs of great tennis. Of good height (1.83 cm) and a powerful left foot, his tennis does not distinguish between great forehands, backhands or drops: all his executions seem perfect. “Technically he is very good, but tactically he still has a long way to go. The good thing is that he is a fast learner and I wouldn’t be impressed if he jumped in quickly and finished 150 now and not next year.” Marcelo Ríos, his current coach, in the newspaper The Third of Chile.
All these technical attributes, added to a great leg speed, also generate what Ríos marks: a tactical disorder. In this context, the one born in the commune of Vitacura in Santiago de Chile told that it can be improved. “He has a very good left-handed forehand that is very heavy but very flat, a bit like mine. So, I tried to put that right into him to bite more, like Nadal’s. We trained her one day and she caught it. I also don’t want her to be thinking about doing it every time she hits her, but she did.”
Later, he talked about the return and the serve. Regarding the first “he backs down and, on the advantage side, I told him to stand on the line and take a step, like I did, and hit him there. So he can hit the other guy’s backhand, and he didn’t know how to do that. He learned it in a day and makes it perfect” while on the service side “technically, it’s the same as mine, but he was throwing the ball very low. Now he’s throwing it higher and he’s grabbing it high up.”
The former world number one in 1998, although he does not yet have a signed contract with his pupil, is already traveling with him to the tournaments in which he plays. “I told him: ‘I see you throwing a game, I’ll stop and go’. And he laughs and I reply ‘what are you laughing at’. I tell him ‘you’re not moving, last chance I give you’. Another time I told him ‘you make me go to Egypt and throw a match there and you will never see me again’. But he understands and everything is in good spirits” said the Chilean, who was linked at the end of July with the Asian.
In 2022, Juncheng has only won one title (M15 de Naples) but he has signed good participations in the Challenger circuit in Indianapolis, San Luis de Potosí and Zagreb as well as making a great qualifier in Indian Wells in which he left Francisco Cerúndolo on the road when he had just entered the Top 100. Currently, in Lexington, he reached the final after beating two renowned professional players along the way: Mikhail Kukushkin (Former World No. 39 and winner of an ATP tournament) and Román Safiulin (ATP Cup player for Russia, semi-finalist in Marseille ATP 2022 and Nur-Sultan Challenger champion).
His good performance in this American tournament has already made him climb to 273rd place and if he were champion he would be Top 250 for the first time in his career. He would also be ranked as the third best Chinese in the world rankingonly surpassed by: Zhizhen Zhang (No. 167, 25 years old) and Yibing Wu (No. 173, 22 years old). Another important fact is that he is the youngest player best ranked in the ATP and the youngest semifinalist at Challenger level since Carlos Alcaraz in Alicante 2020.
To paint the personality of this player from head to toe, you also have to listen to the Chinese Ríos: “I think he is too ‘good’, because the Chinese are like that for a cultural thing. Maybe he is very polite, although perhaps the least I have is to be polite. A clear example is when the ball hits the net, he says ‘sorry, sorry’, as if it was too bad. Or he doesn’t dare to hit a ball either. So, I told him ‘put it in his face’. In fact, I hit him with a ball. The ball hit the net and I was left to hit him and he didn’t move and it hit him in the chest. But he got the message. ‘That’s what’s going to happen to you in a game, it’s part of the game and there’s nothing wrong with it. Finally, after you say sorry. Sometimes you have no choice but to throw the ball hard to the body.'”
Although still very young, this son of a former soccer player (Shang Yi, who defended the colors of Beijing Guoan and Xerez of Spain) and a former table tennis player (was gold medal in mixed double at the 1997 World Cup in Manchester) He will seek to leave behind his junior stage in which he was number one in the world and demonstrate his full potential on a circuit that never gives up.
