Tennis: Wu shocks Fritz to become first Chinese ATP finalist of Open era in Dallas
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Wu Yibing has been touted as China's next big hope in tennis.
PHOTO: AFP
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DALLAS – Wu Yibing stunned top-seeded Taylor Fritz 6-7 (3-7), 7-5, 6-4 at the Dallas Open on Saturday to become the first Chinese man to reach an ATP final in the Open era.
The 23-year-old followed up victories over third-seeded Denis Shapovalov and eighth-seeded Adrian Mannarino, and was already just the second Chinese man to reach a tour-level semi-final in the Open era, joining Pan Bing who made the last four in Seoul in 1995.
Wu said that kind of history was not on his mind against Fritz, nor was he even thinking ahead to a victory that lined up a title clash with fifth-seeded American John Isner.
“When I played today, I wasn’t thinking about any score or winning. I just tried to perform my best,” he said in his on-court interview after closing out the match with two of his 34 winners.
“I remember I had two set points in the first set. I have to say I choked a little bit,” he added with a laugh. “That forehand, I didn’t miss much, but I couldn’t make it. But in general I think I’m pretty relaxed.”
After Fritz won the first set which lasted 58 minutes, Wu had to fight off five break points in the fourth game of the second set, and was down 0-30 in the 10th game.
He managed to hold serve, break Fritz and hold again to pocket the set, and made a break in the fifth game of the third set for his first career win over a top-10 player.
Wu, who reached a career-high 97th in the world rankings last Monday, is poised to become the highest-ranked Chinese player ever, passing Zhang Zhizhen, who currently sits at 91st.
On Sunday, he was due to face an experienced opponent in Isner, who advanced to his 31st ATP final with a 3-6, 7-5, 7-6 (7-4) victory over fellow American J.J. Wolf.
Isner’s big serve helped him overcome an otherwise sluggish performance.
“I saved a lot of break points with unreturnable serves. Without that, I would have been dusted off the court 6-3, 6-4,” he said.
The 37-year-old entered the ATP Tour record books on Friday by becoming the first man to win 500 tour-level tiebreaks in his 7-6 (10-8), 7-5 victory over Emilio Gomez in the quarter-finals.
AFP, REUTERS
