Newsletter

Wu Yibing achieves historic success for China

NNormally, the relatively small Court 13 at Flushing Meadows is not a place where great tennis history is made. In the first week of the US Open, professionals play there who are not classified as crowd pullers by the organizer.

On Monday, however, when the New York audience and the rest of the tennis world turned their eyes to Arthur Ashe Stadium, where Serena Williams was celebrated on a farewell tour, something historic also happened on adjacent court 13: Qualifier Wu Yibing defeated Georgian Nikoloz, who was 31st Basilashvili 6-3, 6-4, 6-0 – becoming the first Chinese tennis pro to win a match at a Grand Slam tournament. “I want to enjoy this tournament, I want to enjoy playing tennis at all,” said 22-year-old Wu.

From 1869 to 174th place

While China’s women, above all Li Na with her titles at the French Open 2011 and Australian Open 2014, have won a lot of merits in recent years, the men from the mainland had hardly anything to show for themselves: Cheng Guy won a game at the US Open in 1935, in 1959 Fu Chi Mei survived a round at Wimbledon – both of which predate the professional era that began in 1968.

He was “happy and excited,” Wu said after his coup, “but there are still a few games to come.” Should he defeat the Portuguese qualifier Nuno Borges this Wednesday (9.30 p.m.), he would have to deal with the world number one and New York titleholder Daniil Medvedev.

China’s cracker in the professional circus is already Wu Yibing. In just five months, he climbed from 1869 to 174th in the world rankings, not least because he had won three tournaments in the second-class Challenger Tour in the past few weeks. As sensational as his successes as a professional are – they come with a delay.

Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Trending