In the first round of the ATP500 China Open men's singles main event, a high-profile "China Derby" was staged. World No. 96 Buyun Chaokert battled it out with world No. 52 Shang Juncheng, who eventually came back from behind 6-7 (3)/6-2/6-4 to advance to the second round and his first victory in the 500 tournament.
Buyun Chaokert is steadily moving forward on the road of tennis. In the first round of the Shanghai Masters last year, he defeated Kecmanovic to claim his first career tour victory. This season, he has shown a lot of strength and upward momentum by winning the Granby and Wuxi Challenger tournaments, as well as reaching the semi-finals at the Hangzhou 250.
Shang Juncheng's potential should not be underestimated. He has been in excellent form at this year's Grand Slam tournaments, reaching the third round of both the Australian Open and the US Open, and the second round at Wimbledon. At the Chengdu 250 last week, he pulled off an upset to win his first tour title.
Looking back at this intense game. In the first set, Shang Juncheng broke first in the 7th game, while Buyun Chaokert broke back in the 10th game to make the score 5-5. In the tie-break, Shang Juncheng won 7-3.
In the second set, the two men broke each other in the first two games, and then Buyun Chaokert broke again in the third game to take a 2-1 lead. After a crucial break in the seventh game, Buyun Chaokert led 5-2 and eventually won the second set 6-2.
In the third set, in the first game, Buyun Chaokert broke first and took a 3-0 advantage. In the 4th game, Shang Cheng Cheng broke back. In the 8th game, Shang Juncheng broke again and chased the score to 4-4. But in the ninth game, Buyun broke serve to take a 5-4 lead and eventually win the third set 6-4.
In terms of technical statistics, Buyun Chaokert's serve was excellent. He issued 8 aces, up from Shang's 5 aces. Buyun Chaokert's 69% first-serve scoring rate is also higher than Shang's. In terms of break efficiency, Buyun Chaoket seized 7 of his 18 break chances, and Shang Juncheng took 4 of his 6 break opportunities.
With this victory, Buyunchaoket scored 50 points and $54,405 and moved to 89th place. This match fully demonstrated the strength and potential of the two Chinese youngsters, and despite the victory and defeat of the match, their wonderful performances made people look forward to the future of Chinese tennis.