Teenager Shang Juncheng beat Italian Olympic bronze medalist Lorenzo Musetti 7-6 (4), 6-1 within the Chengdu Open last Tuesday to turn into the second Chinese language participant to win an ATP title.
It’s the first ATP Tour title for Shang, who’s presently China’s No. 2 and ranked fifty fifth on the planet. The previous juniors No. 1 can also be the youngest ATP winner of the season at 19 years outdated.
Li Na stays China’s most profitable singles participant with Grand Slam wins on the French Open in 2011 and the Australian Open in 2014, whereas there are a number of girls hoping to emulate her, together with Paris Olympics gold medalist Qinwen Zheng.
However success on the lads’s aspect has largely eluded the nation, and Wu Yibing grew to become the primary Chinese language participant to seize an ATP trophy when he received the Dallas Open final yr.
Shang has additionally strengthened his push to qualify for the Subsequent Gen ATP Finals for the primary time. The competitors, hosted in Saudi Arabia in November and December, will characteristic the world’s prime 20-and-under singles gamers of the ATP Tour season.
Within the Hangzhou Open, Croat wild card Marin Cilic grew to become the lowest-ranked champion in ATP Tour historical past on Tuesday with success in his first tour stage occasion since February.
Cilic, who turns 36 on Saturday, received his first title since 2021 with a 7-6(5) 7-6(5) win over China’s primary and sixth seed Zhang Zhizhen, who was enjoying his first tour stage last.
The triumph for Cilic, who has been sidelined with a knee harm, lifted the previous world quantity three from 777th at the beginning of the match to 212 within the ATP rankings.
It was the twenty first title of Cilic’s profession, with the Hangzhou Open having changed the Zhuhai Championships on the calendar.
