5 Chinese players participated in the US Open qualifiers, and the men's tennis junior goal was the best ranking in history

Source: The Paper

On August 23, the 2022 U.S. Open will kick off the men's and women's singles qualifiers.

A total of 5 Chinese players played, namely Zhu Lin, Wang Qiang, Yuan Yue, Zhang Zhizhen and Wu Yiyu, while Zhang Shuai, Zheng Qinwen, Wang Xiyu and Wang Xinyu directly entered the main tournament by relying on the ranking.

Born on January 28, 1994, Zhu Lin is 28 years old and currently ranks 74th in the WTA standings, reaching 69th on February 17, 2020.

This is her second time in the US Open – in 2019, when she was ranked 122nd, she debuted at the Lily Jane King National Tennis Center, where she defeated Wang Xinyu, who had successfully broken through the qualifying round by a score of 6-3, 6-4 in the first round of women's singles, to win the "China Derby" and successfully advance to the second round.

Prior to that, she had stopped the first round of a Grand Slam six times in a row (3 Australian Open, 2 Wimbledons, 1 French Open).

The breakthrough in New York opened a new chapter in her career, and in the past year she has reached the second round again at the Australian Open, and in 2021 she has successfully broken through the first round at both the Australian Open and Wimbledon.

This year's US Open, Zhu Lin will play as the No. 2 seed in the women's singles qualifiers against Canada's Zhao Yiyu, who is currently ranked 186th in the WTA standings.

The two players have never played each other before, but judging from the recent state, the probability of Chinese girls winning is obviously greater.

In the week before coming to New York, Julien won five consecutive titles in the Landisville ITF 100 class in Pennsylvania, earning 140 points.

From late July to mid-August, opponents suffered three consecutive defeats in the first round of the WTA 250 Class San Jose Women's Singles Qualifier, the first round of the Rogers Cup and the first round of the Vancouver Open of the WTA125 Series.

No. 11 seed Wang Qiang, currently ranked 103rd in the WTA, will return to New York for the first time after 2019.

Her opponent in the first round of the women's singles qualifier will be homegrown wild card player Liv Horford, the 16-year-old winner of this year's Wimbledon junior women's singles title, ranking 965th in the WTA.

Although due to the epidemic and various reasons, the number of matches played by Wang Qiang in the past two seasons has been relatively reduced, and the results are not as prominent as before the epidemic, compared with the opponents who debuted on the professional stage, the 30-year-old Wang Qiang's ability in terms of technical tactics and experience is still much higher.

She holds two WTA Tour titles at the Jiangxi Open and the Guangzhou Open, has won women's singles gold medals at the Incheon Asian Games and the Jakarta Asian Games, and reached her 12th career ranking on September 9, 2019.

It is worth mentioning that the US Open is also the place where Wang Qiang first appeared on the Grand Slam stage.

Back in 2014, at the age of 22, she appeared at the Billy Jane King National Tennis Center. At that time, she won three consecutive qualifying matches to advance to the main tournament.

In the first round of the main tournament, she won nine consecutive sets after the first set of 3-2, beating Kania 6-2, 6-0 to reach the second round of a Grand Slam for the first time.

From 2014 to 2019, she played in the WOMEN's Singles Tournament of the US Open for six consecutive times – in addition to being out of the first round in 2017, she reached the round of 32 in 2018 and reached the top 8 in 2019, creating her best record of participating in a Grand Slam.

In the 2019 quarter-final, Wang Qiang dominated the whole field with her fast-paced attack, and finally defeated the no. 2 seed at the time, Ashley Barty, the no. 2 seed at the time, and the champion.

Born on September 25, 1998, Yuan Yue is currently ranked 142nd in the WTA, and will challenge the 13th seed, local player Katie Wowlinetz, in the first round of the qualifiers, and the 20-year-old is ranked 113th.

The match will start at 0:30 a.m. Beijing time on August 24, and Yuan Yue will also be the first Chinese player to play in this US Open.

There has never been a match between the two before, and judging by the recent status of the two sides and the world rankings, it will be a five-and-five competition.

In the past five matches, Yuan Yue has won 1 and lost 4, while Wolinitz has lost 2-3 – one of her two wins is a 2-1 reversal of Harmony Tan, and the Frenchman once eliminated Serena Williams in the first round of this year's Wimbledon upset.

This will be Yuan Yue's 7th Grand Slam women's singles qualifier, after she had lost three times in the decider round. But this year at Wimbledon, she entered the main game as a substitute for the "lucky loser", which is both luck and the accumulation of past experience.

In the men's singles, Zhang Zhizhen and Wu Yixun will launch an attack on the main game, which is also the second time after 2019 that two Chinese mainland men's players appeared in the qualifying arena in New York , when Li Zhe and Zhang Xuan were unfortunately out of the first and second rounds respectively.

Born on October 16, 1996, Zhang Zhizhen is currently ranked 138th in the ATP standings and is a "Chinese brother".

In the 2022 season, Zhang Zhizhen, who fully returned to the professional arena, reached the final of four ATP challenges and won the third challenge of his career in Cordenons, Italy.

He spent most of his time on clay courts honing his technique, and also tried his hand out on the hard ground in Poland the week before heading to New York, where he managed to reach the final.

At the Billy Jane King National Tennis Center, Zhang Zhizhen became the 32nd seed in the qualifiers due to the withdrawal of regular riley Opelka, and his opponent in the first round was Atp-180 Argentine Mark Trentrieti.

The match will be held at 23:00 Beijing time on August 24, and the two have never met before.

Judging by their recent form, they both felt good, and both reached the challenge final a week before the US Open qualifiers, both of which were 1-2.

But looking at the events that have ended the whole season, it is clear that Zhang Zhizhen's performance is stronger and more stable.

In the Grand Slam qualifiers, Zhang Zhizhen, who has played five times in the past, has passed the first round of the 2021 Australian Open, the 2021 French Open, and the 2022 Wimbledon.

Last year, he won three consecutive games to advance at Wimbledon, becoming the first Chinese mainland male player to appear at a Club All England.

Wu Yifu, 22, is currently ranked 178th in the ATP standings, and he set a personal best ranking on August 8 to reach 173rd.

In the 2022 season, due to injuries and the epidemic, he started from the ITFM15 event and soon won the championship in the orangery M15, the second professional event he participated in, raising his world ranking from 1,000 to more than 800.

After that, he embarked on a rocket-like ascent – after winning three titles at the ATP Orlando Challenge, the Roma Challenge, and the Indianapolis Challenge, he managed to secure a place in the US Open qualifiers.

It will be his first professional Appearance in a Grand Slam qualifier and his first return to New York since winning the U.S. Open Junior Men's Singles and Men's Doubles titles in 2017.

At the Billy Jane King National Tennis Center, his first-round opponent will be 18th seed Richard Birankis. The latter, 32 years old, is currently ranked 123rd in the ATP, and its highest ranking has come to 50th.

Since 2010, he has played in the US Open nine times, four first round exits, four stops in the second round, only reaching the third round in 2020, and his best Grand Slam record is only the third round - in addition to the US Open, the Australian Open in 2011 and 2013 and the French Open in 2021.

The match will start at 3:30 a.m. Beijing time on August 24, and Wu Yiyu, who returns to the place where the dream began, will launch an attack on his professional dream.