Wu Yibing got here again from the brink to make historical past Sunday on the Dallas Open, the place the fast-rising 23-year-old saved 4 championship factors earlier than downing John Isner 6-7(4), 7-6(3), 7-6(12) to grow to be the primary Chinese participant to raise an ATP Tour trophy.
Before this week, no Chinese man had ever reached a tour-level last within the Open Era or defeated an opponent within the Top 10 of the Pepperstone ATP Rankings. Wu achieved each of these in a single go along with his semi-final victory in opposition to World No. 8 Taylor Fritz in Dallas, and he continued his history-making run in Sunday’s last with a milestone victory for tennis in his nation.
“I made historical past right here for my nation and for my residence,” mentioned Wu on the trophy ceremony. “I’m very happy with myself and particularly due to all of the followers and my crew who got here right here to help. I couldn’t do that with none of you guys.”
Photo Credit: Dallas Open/Alex Smith
After a shiny begin, Wu appeared to have pale within the face of a trademark serving barrage from Isner on the indoor ATP 250 occasion in Texas. The American held championship level on his opponent’s serve at 6-5, 30/40 within the second set, however Wu stored his cool to get well earlier than sealing a historic victory in a nerve-wracking deciding-set tie-break.
Wu pressured Isner to push a forehand lengthy to clinch a third-set tie-break by which the primary 22 factors went with serve. He accomplished a exceptional two-hour, 59-minute win regardless of Isner firing 44 aces within the match.
“It’s a troublesome one to lose,” mentioned Isner, who’s now 16-15 in tour-level finals. “I don’t know what number of match factors I had, I’m certain it’s quite a bit. I swear I assumed I gained the match just a few instances. I do know he hit one ball… It needed to be [on] the again sixteenth of the road on one of many factors… Sports may be brutal. I had match level within the second set too.
“It’s like he performs each level the identical, so positively no nerves,” added Isner when asked about Wu’s performance. “He will get a ball to hit, he hits it, and on this courtroom it’s laborious to hit him a shot he’s uncomfortable with… He is an unbelievable ballstriker and an excellent expertise.”
Even after falling a set behind, Wu continued to strike aggressively from the baseline in his maiden tour-level assembly with Isner. His mixture of energy and accuracy introduced him 41 winners, together with seven aces, whereas the Chinese additionally gained all 13 factors he performed on the web.
Wu, who didn’t compete on the ATP Tour from March 2019 to January 2022 attributable to a collection of accidents, had notched simply six tour-level wins previous to this week. Yet he confirmed no signal of nerves all through his run, throughout which he defeated Michael Mmoh, third seed Denis Shapovalov, Adrian Mannarino, prime seed Fritz, and Isner.
On Monday, Wu grew to become simply the second Chinese participant to crack the Top 100 within the Pepperstone ATP Rankings. Now he’ll rise to a career-high World No. 58 only one week later.
Isner, who pledged to donate $100 to the Isner Family Foundation for every ace he hit this week, completed the event with 138 aces, elevating $13,800 for needy youngsters within the Dallas space.
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Source: www.atptour.com