Chinese Men’s Singles Players Perform Well at French Open Despite Early Losses

Hangzhou Daily News Although tennis star Nadal withdrew from the French Open due to injury, for Chinese tennis fans, the 2023 French Open is still full of highlights. Come to Roland Garros’s Chinese men’s tennis team.

On May 29, Beijing time, men’s singles players from mainland China led by Hangzhou boy Wu Yibing played in the first round of the French Open. Regrettably, Shang Juncheng and Wu Yibing lost in the first round successively, and missed the French Open for the first time.

The first to play is the 18-year-old Chinese teenager Shang Juncheng, who is ranked 200th in the world. Before that, he won 3 consecutive qualifying games and entered the French Open men’s singles for the first time in his career. He became the youngest Asian player to advance to the French Open. In the first round against Peruvian player Valiras, Shang Chengcheng won two sets first, but was reversed by his opponent in three sets.

Wu Yibing’s current world ranking is 59th, the highest among the three participating Chinese men’s singles players. He “flyed into the sky” at the US Open last year. Although he was affected by injuries from time to time this year, his performance is still making great strides. He successfully won the championship in Dallas in February and became the first Chinese mainland player to win the singles championship on the ATP Tour. At the Geneva Open just one week before the start of the French Open, Wu Yibing once again reached the quarterfinals.

In the first round against the famous Spanish player and No. 19 seed Agut, Wu Yibing started very well. He did not lose the wind in the bottom line confrontation and made a perfect start of 2-0, but Agut quickly broke back. The two sides came and went, and Wu Yibing finally failed in the “tie-break” and lost the first set.

In this set, Wu Yibing scored a whopping 26 winning points. His offensive firepower was fierce, but he had 23 unforced errors. It is not difficult to understand why he lost a good game. After losing the first set, Wu Yibing’s mentality changed and he lost the patience to deal with his opponent. In the end, he lost to his opponent 6-7(4), 1-6, 1-6 in three sets and was eliminated. He missed the chance to advance to the second round.

Before the match, Chinese tennis fans had been looking forward to the fact that if both Wu Yibing and Shang Juncheng passed the first round, they would meet in the second round, and the “Chinese Derby” would be staged for the first time in Grand Slam history. But unfortunately, with the elimination of the two, such a beautiful vision could not be realized.

Despite this, the Chinese men’s singles team is still very impressive, and they have made great progress in the past half a year. In fact, no men’s singles player from mainland China has appeared in the French Open since the Open era, and now this history has been rewritten.

As of press time, Zhang Zhizhen became the only remaining Chinese men’s singles player in this year’s French Open. According to the schedule, Zhang Zhizhen will face the world No. 51 player Lajovic of Serbia in the first round. The latter won consecutive victories over Djokovic and Rublev at this year’s Banja Luka Open and finally won the championship.