Wu Yibing says that there is more to come from him after he became the first Chinese player in history to win an ATP title at the Dallas Open.
The 23-year-old withstood 44 aces from John Isner to prevail 6-7(4), 7-6(3), 7-6(12), in what was a roller-coaster final on Sunday. Wu saved a match point in the second set and three more in the decider. Overall, he hit 41 winners against 17 unforced errors without dropping serve throughout the match. The historic win occurred just 24 hours after he beat Taylor Fritz who is the first top 10 player he has defeated on the Tour. Earlier in the tournament, he also knocked out Adrian Mannarino and Denis Shapovalov.
“I feel happy. It’s not only about winning the title. It’s more about me personally making history, also for the country,” Yibing said during an interview with atptour.com. “It’s huge for the next generation. For me, I need to keep going, keep my body healthy and I’m sure there’s more to come.”
A former US Open boy’s champion back in 2017, Wu’s journey in the sport has been a difficult one. Due to a combination of injury and the COVID-19 pandemic, he didn’t play any events between March 2019 and January 2022. As a result, he fell out of the world’s top 1000 and had no rankings points to his name.
However, since last June has rocketed up the rankings from 617th to a career-high of 58. During this period, he won three Challenger titles in America and reached the third round of a major for the first time at the US Open before his win in Dallas.
“I’ve been through a lot of things. I’ve been through injuries, I’ve been through many difficult situations when I was growing up. I think the reason why I’m relaxed now on the tennis court is because I trust myself. If you want to beat me, you have to work hard.” He said.
“Of course there were a lot of doubts because I did surgery and the rehab wasn’t going well. It took longer than it should [have], but it turned out I’m here. I’d be [lying] if I said 100 per cent I’m going to be here today. But the process is always the most important thing.
“I trust myself and I work hard for it. In the gym, on the tennis court, off the court, I always think about tennis. The way I look at tennis, now it’s more relaxing, more enjoyable than before.”
Wu started playing tennis by coincidence. When he was younger his parents were worried about his weight so they sent him to a badminton court for exercise but when the net proved to be too high for him, he took up tennis instead.
His breakthrough comes amid a surge in success for Chinese men’s tennis. Last month at the Australian Open 18-year-old Shang Juncheng became the first man from his country to win a main draw match. Meanwhile, last October, Zhizhen Zhang became the first to crack the ATP top 100 and is currently ranked 92nd.
As for Wu’s rise in the sport, he credits the support he receives back home. He is currently coached on the Tour by Gerardo Azcurra who he met through IMG.
“Back in China I have my support team, especially Team China and the association, they give us the best conditions to play, the chances to travel around the world and support us.” He said.
