The breakthrough of Chinese men's tennis continues.
In the early morning of May 3, Beijing time, at the ATP1000 Madrid Masters, China's Zhang Zhizhen successfully reached the quarterfinals when facing world No. 10 Fritz.
The victory also made him the first Chinese men's tennis player to reach the quarterfinals of the Masters, continuing to set new Chinese mainland best results in the ATP Masters and clay Tour. After winning the top 10 for the first time in his career, Zhang Zhizhen scored 180 points, and the instant ranking reached 66th, which also set a new personal high.
Looking back on his week in Madrid, it was a bit "Madrid unthinkable": Zhang Zhizhen won the first clay victory of the China Men's Tennis Tour, the first Masters win in the Chinese Men's Tennis Tournament, and the first Masters quarterfinals of the Chinese Men's Tennis Tournament. On a personal level, he won his first personal Masters victory, personal top 30 first victory, personal top 20 first victory, personal top 10 first victory...
Most importantly, in addition to breaking records, Zhang Zhizhen showed a perfect transformation in the competition.
The two tie-for-seven in this game, Zhang Zhizhen was the first to be broken by the mini and encountered a crisis. In the third set, he saved the match points one after another and pulled himself back from the cliff. From the previous Wimbledon Australian Open countless match points failed to grasp the result was reversed, to the Madrid Masters to save many match points, from the previous fear, to the current stability and calmness. Zhang Zhizhen paid too many tuition fees and experienced too many failures before finally standing in this position.
His story is not unique, this may be the general state of many players in China's men's tennis in recent years. Compared with Chinese women's tennis, which has long been famous, the Chinese men's tennis has not achieved any outstanding results, and there is a lack of leaders like Li Na in the long river of history. Over the years, they have participated in countless competitions, but stopped the first round countless times. Compared with the Chinese women's nets, the men's nets always seem to be the green leaves of the foil, obscured, and few people can notice them.
Far from it, from 2010 until last year, the world's highest ranking of Chinese mainland men's tennis has not been able to enter the top 100. In the decade from 2010 to 2019, Zhang Zhi ranked first in China 8 times, Wu Di once and Zhang Zhizhen 1 time, but this decade, their average world ranking is only 204 - such a ranking, most tours do not even qualify for registration, can only be in the ATP challenge or lower ITF events for a long time.
For the Chinese men's network, there was an ultimate question, that is, "Chinese mainland men's network, when will there be a TOP100". Unfortunately, for many years, this question has not been answered, and the TOP100 is almost an untouchable threshold for Chinese men's tennis.
But for most of the year, with Zhang Zhizhen, Shang Juncheng, Wu Yixiang and several other new-generation men's singles players working together, the long-dormant Chinese men's tennis finally came to hope.
In October 2022, Zhang Zhizhen took the lead in breaking into the top 100 of the ATP world ranking, creating the history of the Chinese mainland men's network and taking the lead in answering that ultimate question;
In January 2023, Shang Juncheng defeated German Ott in the first round of the Australian Open men's singles, becoming the first Chinese mainland male player in the Open era to advance to the second round of the Australian Open;
In February 2023, Wu Yixiang defeated local star Isner in Dallas, USA, becoming the first Chinese in history to win the ATP Tour championship;
Of course, we can't ignore that at the beginning of the year, the Australian Open men's singles main tournament China had three finalists, Wu Yixiang constantly refreshed the world ranking of the Chinese men's tennis (instant ranking 53rd), and Buyun Chaoket won his first challenge championship in the Seoul 125K Challenge... At present, in the TOP200, there are already four Chinese men's singles players, which has also created a new history. This is not a single bloom, this is a hundred flowers, and the Chinese men's tennis has taken a big step.
Zhang Zhizhen's statement after the victory over Fritz may have revealed the hearts of these people: "Anyway, I have lost so much before, and there is nothing to fear of losing again." ”
Of course, as a pathfinder of Chinese tennis, China's women's tennis also has a great encouraging effect on men's tennis. In the interview, Zhang Zhizhen also mentioned Li Na and mentioned Zhang Shuai: "Their stories definitely inspire us. For example, Zhang Shuai, she lost in the first round of the Grand Slam 10 times, 11 times (actually 14 times), and then broke through and reached the quarterfinals, a wonderful story. This story is also great for me because I have already lost three five-set battles in the first round of a Grand Slam and I haven't given up yet. ”
No matter how yin and yang Chinese tennis was before, no matter how many times the Chinese men's tennis lost before, we are happy to see that Chinese men's tennis has finally stood up.
It may be that soon, we can see Chinese men's singles players in the TOP50, Chinese men's singles players in the quarterfinals or even the final four or final of the Grand Slam main tournament, and we can see that Chinese men's tennis has born a leader like Li Na, leading the Chinese men's tennis into a farther future.
Of course, this requires a step-by-step effort from generation to generation.
"Every game won by our younger generation of Chinese players and experienced everything that the previous generation did not do. I am now at the top, and every step I take is a new step for our Chinese tennis. I hope that I can make more contributions to Chinese tennis step by step and down-to-earth. ”
This is Wu Yiyang's voice, and it is also the most sincere expectation of Chinese male netizens, including him, for the future. They know that if they want to achieve the glory of China's men's tennis, everything is just a process, far from the end.
The brighter future of China's men's tennis is ahead, waiting for them to create.