Long before Buyunchaokete played at the Rolex Shanghai Masters, he watched it on television for many years as a young boy.
Around 10, he made the trip to the tournament and saw professional tennis in person for the first time. He was hooked.
“It was my first time watching tennis live,” Buyunchaokete recalled. “It’s a good memory.”
More than a decade later, the 24-year-old returns not as a spectator but as one of a growing group of Chinese players making their mark on the ATP Tour.
“The Masters means a lot,” Buyunchaokete said. “Every year I come here, I play good tennis. Hopefully this year is the same.”
For ‘Bu’, arriving in Shanghai also provides another marker in a season that required some rebuilding.
His revival started at the ATP Challenger level, including back-to-back grass-court titles in Birmingham and Ilkley and finals on home soil in Wuxi and in Busan, South Korea. He has now returned to the Top 100 of the PIF ATP Live Rankings.
“Having 10 days of preparation made a big difference for me on grass,” he said. “And I was working with my new coach [Robert Lindstedt] and he helped me a lot with my technique and telling me to be more aggressive and use my serve and go to the net.”
More recently, Buyunchaokete stunned 13th seed Rafael Jodar in the first round of the US Open, reached the quarter-finals in Hangzhou and pushed Novak Djokovic to three sets last week in Beijing.
Chinese tennis looks different today from the sport Buyunchaokete watched on television as a child. The country now hosts four weeks of tournaments in Hangzhou, Chengdu, Beijing and Shanghai, supplemented by a growing schedule of Challenger and junior tournaments.
“I think we’re doing great,” Bu said. “Zheng Qinwen winning the Olympics changed a lot. More people started following tennis.
“The tournaments are great and give us the chance to show our tennis. Tennis is improving quite quickly now.”
Buyunchaokete opens his Shanghai campaign Thursday against Frenchman Luca Van Assche, with the winner to face former World No. 2 Casper Ruud.
