Wu Yibing, who had been injured for three years, managed four match points in the final against John Isner.
Tennis history was made on Sunday when the Chinese Wu Yibing beat Dallas in the ATP tournament final John Isner’s. Wu became the first Chinese ATP tournament winner in history.
China has had many tough female players. Li Na even won two Grand Slam tournaments. On the men’s side, however, China’s success has been considerably less. Before last week, no Chinese man had reached the final of an ATP tournament and had not beaten a top-10 player.
Wu achieved both things by beating the world No.8 By Taylor Fritz in the semifinals in Dallas. In the final, the next step came, i.e. winning the tournament. It is also a big deal in terms of marketing the sport in the giant state.
Wu Yibing’s rise to the top of the world has not come easily. He was the number one junior in the world in 2017 when he won the junior US Open but lost in the final of the ITF Junior Masters tournament Emil Ruusuvuori.
Wu’s first years as a pro were marred by injuries. He did not play any professional matches between March 2019 and January 2022. Last year, he already raised his ranking to close to number 100. The tournament win raises the Chinese to number 58.
The final was a real thriller. The match, which lasted almost three hours, ended 6–7, 7–6, 7–6. The third set tiebreak was 14–12. Isner already had a match point in the second set and in total he had four of them. The serving machine Isner hit no less than 44 aces in the match, but even that wasn’t enough.
– I made history for my country. I am very proud of myself. Thanks to all the fans and my team,” Wu said.
Isner regretted his loss and praised the winner.
– This is a heavy loss. I don’t know how many match balls I had. I thought I won a few times already. He plays every ball the same way, he has no nerves at all.