Wu Yibing loses his first Masters match
- By Zhang Rui
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E-mail China.org.cn, October 9, 2017
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China's rising star Wu Yibing plays against French tennis player Gilles Simon at The Shanghai Rolex Masters in Shanghai, Oct. 8, 2017. [Photo/China.org.cn] |
US Open junior boys champion Wu Yibing lost to Gilles Simon in Shanghai on Sunday in his first match of The Shanghai Rolex Masters, the biggest men's tournament in Asia and only ATP World Tour Masters 1000 event in the region.
Wu, a 17-year-old Hangzhou native, became the first Chinese boy to win a Grand Slam junior boys' singles title at the US Open last month, then won the title of Road to the Shanghai Rolex Masters Challenger. 2017 saw Wu earning a career peak ranking of 320 (now 323), winning the Anning Futures, and reaching the semis of the Chengdu Challenger as well as the Futures event in Majadahonda, Spain. By winning the Road to the Shanghai Rolex Masters Challenger, he earned a wild card into the 2017 Shanghai Rolex Masters, the biggest tournament appearance of his young career so far.
But Wu, initially a little nervous at his first Masters match, dropped a 6-3, 6-4 loss against former finalist Gilles Simon in the first round.
Wu said at his press conference after the match that he planned to work "more on the baseline and try to go to the net more times". He said even losing the game could teach him a lot, and he would analyze his performance later for future improvement. He will also team up with Chinese tennis star Wu Di for doubles in Shanghai.
Simon lavished praise on the young Chinese star. "When he was in the zone, he hit fantastic winners, especially down-the-line. As he improves, he'll be hard to beat," he said. Next up for the French tennis player is a second-round encounter against eighth seed David Goffin of Belgium.
The Frenchman, 33, has played at every Shanghai Rolex Masters over the past nine years, with the highlight being a journey to the 2014 final where he lost to Roger Federer. Simon noted that Shanghai is one of the few tournaments he likes to play. "I have a very nice feeling on the Center Court. I think it's the court I know the best on tour because I've played a lot of matches here," he said.
Besides the Wu-Simon face-off, Sunday's other matches also delivered winning qualifiers into the main draw, including Alexandr Dolgopolov of Ukraine, Frances Tiafoe of the United States, Jordan Thompson of Australia, Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece, Dusan Lajovic of Serbia and Nikoloz Basilashvili of Georgia.
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