At noon on February 9, Beijing time, ATP 250 Dallas, USA began the second round of men's singles, China's Wu Yixiang defeated Canada's Shapovalov who was the No. 3 seed and world No. 27 7-6 (1), 6-4, defeating the world's top 30 players for the first time in his career, reaching the quarterfinals of the ATP Tour for the first time, and immediately ranking 90th, becoming the fourth male player to reach the quarterfinals of the Tour after Pan Bing, Zhang Zhi and Zhang Zhizhen Chinese mainland
"I've been doing really well in the last few months and hopefully I can keep it up." Wu Yixiang specially thanked the Chinese fans in the post-match on-court interview, "I am grateful for the injuries I have suffered, because it has made me experience a different life experience, made me more mature, made me more aware of my abilities, so I can play better tennis and enjoy tennis more." ”
Wu Yixiang, who finished runner-up at the ATP Cleveland Challenger last week, breaking the top 100 in the world rankings for the first time, continued his good form this week and reached the quarterfinals of the Tour for the first time, saying: "I don't think the challenge is as simple as everyone thinks. If you're a non-seeded player, you'll have bigger ambitions. If you're seeded, be careful of getting a 'bite' from a low-ranked player. The tournaments on the Tour are strong overall, so my goal is to stay in the group and keep playing the game. ”
Wu Yixiang made headlines on the ATP's official website
Speaking of which, in fact, Shapovalov, like Wu Yiyang, was born in 1999, and both are Grand Slam junior champions. Shapovalov won the 2016 Wimbledon junior men's singles title, while Wu Yixiang won the 2017 US Open junior men's singles title. However, Shapovalov changed his career earlier and more successfully, breaking into the world's top 100 in 2017, reaching the quarterfinals and top 10 at the US Open in 2020, reaching the semifinals at Wimbledon in 2021, and winning the ATP Cup and Davis Cup for Canada last year.
Compared with his peers, Wu Yixiang has experienced injuries and the epidemic in the past few years, and his pace of progress is relatively slow, but he also takes advantage of this time to recuperate, recuperate his body and mentality, and participate in the Chinese tennis tour to maintain his condition. Last year, Wu Yixiang returned to the international arena and fell to 1869th in the ranking, but he fought step by step with his strength, and in less than a year, he rushed to the top 100. Looking forward to the future, Wu Yixiang said confidently: "I don't have any points to keep in the first half of this year, so the next step is to maintain good health, and then strive to hit the top 30 in the world!" ”
Wu Yixiang's instant ranking came to No.90
At present, Wu Yixiang has defeated the world's top 100 players a total of 9 times, and the defeat of Shapovalov is the first time Wu Yixiang has defeated the top 30 players. He proved that he was fully capable of competing with the players in this group.
After entering the TOP100 for the first time this week, Wu Yixiang's world ranking will set a new high next week, and the instant ranking has reached 90th, surpassing Zhang Zhizhen to return to the throne of China. Next, Wu will take a day off before facing the winner between Manarino and Thompson in the quarterfinals in Dallas.
(Text/Felix, Faye Wong, Photo/Visual China, ATP)