One small step for Zhang Zhizhen, one giant leap for Chinese men’s game
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China's Zhang Zhizhen poses for a wefie with fans after his victory over Serbia's Dusan Lajovic.
PHOTO: AFP
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PARIS – China has long been the sleeping giant of men’s tennis but on Monday the giant stirred as Shanghai trailblazer Zhang Zhizhen advanced to the second round of the French Open.
One of three Chinese men in the draw, Zhang became the first from the nation to win a main-draw match
Compatriots Shang Juncheng, 18, and Wu Yibing, 23, bowed out in defeat but the 26-year-old Zhang has a big chance to go further when he takes on Argentinian qualifier Thiago Agustin Tirante for a place in the third round.
That would bring him a step closer to the fourth-round mark set by Kho Sin Kie in 1936. Kho, who was born in colonial-era Indonesia but represented China in the Davis Cup, also reached the third round in 1937.
“Last year... even quallies (qualifiers) I couldn’t get in,” world No. 71 Zhang said. “This year I’m enjoying (the) first win here. We have so many (people in China) waiting for us to get (the) first win.”
In the modern era, Chinese tennis has been dominated by women, with two-time Grand Slam champion Li Na becoming the country’s first winner at Roland Garros in 2011 before she went on to clinch victory at Melbourne Park three years later.
The men’s game has been a much slower burn, with Wu Di becoming China’s first singles entrant at a Grand Slam main draw in the professional era in 2013 when he lost in the first round of the Australian Open.
It took nearly another decade for a Chinese man to claim a main-draw win, with Wu Yibing breaking a 63-year drought on the way to the third round at the 2022 US Open.
Teenager Shang followed that by reaching the second round of the Australian Open in January on his Grand Slam debut as the youngest player in the draw.
Zhang, the oldest of the Chinese trio and a relatively late bloomer, has now kept the streak alive after setting a number of tennis “firsts” for the country in recent months.
Last October, he became the first Chinese man to crack the top 100 in the ATP’s world rankings and in May became the first to reach the quarter-finals of an ATP Masters 1000 event at the Madrid Open.
“Now we are passing the quallies and coming to the main draw,” Zhang, who was also the first Chinese man to play at Wimbledon in 2021, added of the Grand Slam breakthroughs. “That’s one step, again, like a step forward.
“(Chinese) Girls have a lot of people playing. Now we (men) are more and more. Yeah, we are trying to catch the girls.” REUTERS, AFP
