How far can Chinese players go in this year's US Open after winning four games on their first day? Zhang Zhizhen breaks the curse of five sets and enters the second round of the US Open for the first time
Last night and this morning Beijing time, on the first day of the US Open, all four Chinese players competed and advanced! In the first round of the men's singles, Zhang Zhizhen fought fiercely for 4 hours and 29 minutes, defeating Wolf 7-5/7-5/6-7/4-6/6-3 and achieving his first victory in the US Open. In the first round of women's singles, Wang Xinyu defeated Vorenets 6-3/6-4, winning her first victory in the US Open; Zhu Lin defeated Xie Lifu 6-3/7-5 and advanced to the second round of the women's singles; Wang Xiyu reversed Kuzmova's pass from 4-6/6-3/7-6.
Last year, Chinese Mainland players collectively made great achievements at the US Open. Wu Yibing, Zhang Shuai, Zheng Qinwen, Wang Xiyu and Yuan Yue all broke into the top 32 of the US Open, and Zhang Shuai also ranked in the top 16, which was dubbed "Super New Year" by many fans. Whether they can achieve good results again this year is highly expected.
The last Grand Slam of this season for the US Open, a total of 7 Chinese tennis players were directly qualified based on world rankings. Among them, the women's singles include Zheng Qinwen, Zhu Lin, Zhang Shuai, Wang Xinyu, and Wang Xiyu, while the men's singles include Zhang Zhizhen and Wu Yibing. However, Zhang Shuai withdrew from the Grand Slam tournament due to injury before the match, marking his first absence in nearly a decade. Wang Yafan successfully broke through the qualification round and returned to the Grand Slam main tournament after two years.
Among them, Zhang Zhizhen's performance is noteworthy.
Zhang Zhizhen has performed well in the past two seasons, but the first round of the 2022 US Open has become a major pain point in his career. Faced with Dutch player Lewandowski, Zhang Zhizhen squandered 7 match points in the third set while leading in two sets, but ultimately suffered a major comeback and missed his first victory in the US Open.
This season, Zhang Zhizhen finally broke his heart at the French Open, winning two consecutive games and reaching the quarterfinals. Zhang Zhizhen still made it to the quarterfinals of the Madrid Masters and reached the semi-finals of the ATP500 Hamburg Grand Prix, but he still looks forward to proving himself on the hard court of the US Open. In the first round of this year's US Open, Zhang Zhizhen's opponent was host player Wolf, who ranked higher in points than Zhang Zhizhen. However, his performance in this season's US Open warm-up matches was mediocre.
Zhang Zhizhen's opponent in the first round was Wolff, who played in the domestic competition. In this game, the two sides fought fiercely for five sets. Zhang Zhizhen was dragged into the decisive set by his opponent after winning two sets first. Despite the pressure, Zhang Zhizhen narrowly defeated his opponent and achieved his first victory in the US Open in his personal career. Zhang Zhizhen, who broke through the five set curse, will face the 5th seed and Norwegian ace Rudd in the second round of the competition.
A good start also gave the upcoming Wu Yibing and Zheng Qinwen enough confidence.
According to the previous signing, Zheng Qinwen, who was listed as the 23rd seed, was placed in the fourth quarter zone. In the first round, Zheng Qinwen will face Argentine player Podoroska, who is better at clay. In the second round, he will face the winner of two veteran players, Ka é n é and Strekova. In the third round, he drew the worst form Krechkova from the 9th to 16th rankings, who is currently in a three game losing streak and is struggling to win in the North American hard court season. Zheng Qinwen's signing can be said to be quite good. Can she seize the opportunity to make her debut in the round of 16 of the US Open?
Last year at the US Open, Wu Yibing lost to Medvedev in the third round, but this year he wants to continue playing against his opponents by advancing to the fourth round. Wu Yibing drew Serbian player Lajovic in the first round of this year's French Open, who witnessed Zhang Zhizhen's first victory in a Grand Slam. In terms of hard ground strength, Wu Yibing is indeed above his opponent. However, this North American hard ground season, he has been plagued by injuries and has hardly played warm-up matches. Whether he can immediately regain his form is still a question.
If he can defeat Lajovic, Wu Yibing will face this year's Toronto Masters runner up Deminar in the second round, making it difficult for him to reach the third round for two consecutive years.
In addition, Wang Yafan, who passed the qualification round, made her debut in the Grand Slam main tournament after Wimbledon in 2021 and in the US Open main tournament for the first time since 2019. Her opponent in the first round of the main match will be French star Garcia, with a previous record of 1-1. Wang Yafan has won the most recent match.
