The surging collective strength of Chinese men’s tennis is turning heads at the top of the game with an unprecedented local contingent raring to make some noise at the Rolex Shanghai Masters.
Following his straight-sets opening win against India’s Sumit Nagal in Shanghai on Wednesday, China’s former US Open boys’ champion Wu Yibing celebrated his first ATP Tour win in over 13 months by writing down an implicit “F5” on the broadcasting camera, leaving even his most diehard fans wondering what he meant.
Wu was marking a historic moment for Chinese men’s tennis.
Led by three top-100 contenders, five Chinese mainland players have entered this year’s Rolex Shanghai Masters, including two wild-card entries, making it the biggest ever Chinese representation at any professional tournament on the ATP Tour.
And Wu hopes this strength in numbers will only continue to grow.
“F5 is the ‘refresh’ button on a computer keyboard. I just hope all the five of us, or even more in the future, can renew our previous bests by outdoing ourselves here,” Wu said after beating Nagal 6-3, 6-3 on Wednesday, becoming the lowest-ranked singles main draw winner — he was ranked No 564 at the time — in the Shanghai tournament’s history. The win has propelled Wu to an ATP live ranking of No 441.
As the first Chinese player to be crowned a Grand Slam junior champion (New York, 2017), and the first to claim an ATP Tour title at the 2023 Dallas Open, Wu was supposed to spearhead the rise of the Chinese men under a central spotlight. Yet, a series of injuries, mainly a left foot problem that had bothered him for over 10 years, took a toll on his consistency, forcing him to take a number of long breaks over the past two seasons.