China had not had a man win a Grand Slam match in tennis in 63 years until Monday when Wu Yibing finally pulled it off in his opening round victory over Nikoloz Basilashvili. The 22-year-old had to make it through three qualifying matches just to get into the opening round, but it seemed to be just the warm up needed to beat Basilashvili 6-3, 6-4, 6-0 to move onto round two.
Before Monday, the last male player from China to win a Grand Slam match was Fu Chi Mei, who beat Ron Barnes in five sets in the opening round of Wimbledon in 1959. Chinese female players have fared much better, with Li Na winning both the Australian Open and French Open during her career.
Wu is quickly moving up the ranks and has plans to be in the top 100 in the not too distant future. In fact, he has moved from 1,869 in March to a career-high 174 following two ATP Challenger titles back-to-back.
The path to No. 174 was not an easy one, however, due to multiple injuries. Wu was unable to compete from March of 2019 to January of 2022 following elbow, back, shoulder and wrist injuries with surgery being required on his elbow.
“I don’t really like to talk about those injuries in too (much) detail because every player has injuries,” Wu said. “The mental strength that you have to go through the pain is part of the game.”
Despite the historic win, it wasn’t Wu’s first time at Flushing Meadows. He was the top-ranked junior player and won both the boys’ singles and doubles U.S. Open titles in 2017. He was the first Chinese male to win a Grand Slam title on any level.
After such a long absence for China on the leaderboard, Wu is determined to continue his progress, and grow the sport and popularity back home. With the help of fellow Chinese player, Zhang Zhizhen who unfortunately lost in the first round after winning the first two sets, the goal of improving the sport in China may not be too far away.
“We are both pushing Chinese men’s tennis levels and we’re still young... I think we’re going to get to the Top 100,” Wu stated.
If Wu continues to play as well as he has been recently, that top 100 spot looks to be just around the corner for him.
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