July 1 is an important day in the career of Chinese men's tennis player Zhang Zhizhen. Zhang's 3-0 win over the French allowed Vie to advance to the second round of Wimbledon, unlocking his first win in all four Grand Slam tournaments on hard, clay and grass.
An hour before Zhang Zhizhen's match, the 19-year-old Chinese men's tennis star Shang Juncheng, who played directly in the Wimbledon main draw for the first time, defeated Chilean good Garin in three sets, becoming the first Chinese mainland male player to win the first Wimbledon main event. And if Zhang Zhizhen wins in the first round of Wimbledon, he will unlock his achievement of winning all four Grand Slams.
Zhang Zhizhen has been stable this season, and has performed steadily in both the Australian Open hard court season and the French red clay season. Especially in the clay season, Zhang Zhizhen failed to keep last year's quarter-final points in Madrid, but reached the quarterfinals in Rome in the following tournament. He then made a breakthrough on the grass court tour Halle, securing the No. 32 seed on the eve of Wimbledon. This is also the first time that a Chinese mainland male player has qualified for a Grand Slam seed.
According to the draw, Zhang Zhizhen met French player Jean Vieux, who advanced from the qualifying round in the first round. Zhang Zhizhen's serve weapon was hot, so that his opponent had to stick to the court net when he received the serve. He was even warned by the referee for letting Vieille's catch affect the linesman. In the first set, Zhang Zhizhen was still looking for a touch in terms of hair extensions, and the two of them held serve and the game entered a tie-break. Zhang Zhizhen played steadily to take the lead early and won the first set 7-6.
In the second set, Zhang Zhizhen improved the strength of his serve on the basis of a solid serve, forced break points many times, and won the next set 6-3. In the third set, Weiye made more mistakes, and Zhang Zhizhen won two breaks. Although Zhang lost two match points in the service game, he still sealed the victory 6-2. This is the first time in his career that Zhang Zhizhen has reached the second round of Wimbledon, and he also won his first victory at Wimbledon on grass courts after the 2023 French Open, 2023 US Open and 2024 Australian Open, unlocking the achievement of winning all four Grand Slam main draws. This is also the first time that two male tennis players in Chinese tennis have advanced to the second round of the Wimbledon men's singles at the same time. Zhang Zhizhen won 50 points with this victory, and immediately reached No. 32 in the world rankings.
Shang Juncheng, who played directly in the Wimbledon main draw for the first time, defeated Chilean good Garin 7-5, 6-4, 6-4 to advance to the second round, becoming the first Chinese mainland player to win the first Wimbledon main event. Xiaoshang once won the first men's singles victory in Chinese mainland at the 2023 Australian Open, and now it is the second time to achieve a historic breakthrough in Chinese tennis. So far, Chinese mainland male players have won all four Grand Slams.
In the 2024 season, Shang Juncheng found a way to overcome the bottleneck of fitness and playing style, reaching the semifinals of the Hong Kong Open for the first time, and reaching the round of 32 at the Australian Open with a wild card. He also improved significantly on clay, which he was not good at, and finally reached the top 100 in the world. In this Wimbledon competition, Shang Juncheng directly advanced to the main draw for the first time.
This year's first-round opponent at Wimbledon is Chile's Garin, who is not ranked high in the world, but has reached the quarterfinals at Wimbledon. In this game, Xiao Shang continued his recent hot serve, sending 13 aces in the whole game, close to the opponent's 14. In terms of success rate and scoring rate of first and second serves, small merchants are better than their opponents. Shang Juncheng broke serve in the crucial first set, and after winning the game, he broke early in the second and third sets. Although Xiao Shang had ups and downs at the end of the third set, first missing the opportunity to break his opponent to win the match, and then being repeatedly broken by his opponent, he still resolved the crisis with a good serve and finally sealed the victory 6-4.
So far, Shang Juncheng has won his first victory at Wimbledon after defeating Ott at the 2023 Australian Open and winning the first victory at the Australian Open in Chinese mainland. Thanks to the efforts of Wu Yixuan, Zhang Zhizhen and Shang Juncheng, Chinese mainland male players have won all four Grand Slams and broken through barriers. Shang Juncheng won 50 points with this victory, and immediately moved to 81st place in the world rankings. In the second round, Shang Juncheng will face No. 10 seed Dimitrov.
Text/Beiqing Sports Chu Peng