Buyunchaokete leaves the Rolex Shanghai Masters disappointed by his second-round defeat to Casper Ruud, but encouraged by how far he has come since their first meeting two years ago.
Ruud defeated the Chinese player 6-1, 7-6(2) on Saturday night, with Bu pointing to the light drizzle early in the match as one reason he struggled to impose his aggressive game.
“The conditions at the beginning made me feel a little unsafe with my movement, so I couldn’t really hit the ball as hard or play as aggressively as I wanted,” Bu said through translation.
Once the roof was closed during the opening set, Bu felt increasingly comfortable.
“After the roof closed, I felt I could hit with full force and play my game more,” he said.
Although the improvement came too late to reverse the result, the second set - in which he did not face a break point - offered Bu considerably more encouragement than his first encounter with Ruud.
The pair met in the opening round of the 2024 US Open, when Ruud won 7-6(2), 6-2, 6-2.
Bu recalled feeling almost powerless during the latter stages of that match. Two years on, after establishing himself on Tour and accumulating considerably more experience, he felt the gap had narrowed.
“Two years ago, especially in the last two sets, I felt like I didn’t really have a chance,” Bu said. “This time, even though I lost the first set quickly, in the second set I still felt I had opportunities.
“I’ve been on Tour for two more years now and I think I’ve improved a lot.”
Those two seasons have also taught the 24-year-old lessons away from the court.
“When I first came on Tour, I had almost no experience,” Bu said. “I wanted to play every tournament. Eventually I got injured, I was exhausted and I burned myself out.
“I’ve learned a lot from those two years.”
Bu finishes the Asian swing having broken back inside the Top 100, currently sitting at No. 87 in the PIF ATP Live Rankings, setting himself up for a chance to work back towards his career-high of No. 64 in April last year.
He is 5-6 at Tour-level on the season, claiming four of those wins in the past month in Hangzhou, Beijing and Shanghai. In Beijing he pushed eventual champion Novak Djokovic to three sets in the second round.
