From a gold medal at the Asian Games to the main draw of the Rolex Shanghai Masters, the good times keep rolling for Hong Kong’s Coleman Wong.
The 22-year-old defeated South African Lloyd Harris 6-4, 3-6, 6-2 in the final round of qualifying Tuesday to advance to the main draw at the ATP Masters 1000 tournament for the first time.
“It feels great. I’ve played a few times here. I don't remember winning a match in the centre court, so it means a lot to me,” Wong said.
“If I tell you I'm not tired, I'm joking. I'm still trying to take it day by day because it's been a lot of matches.”
Wong, who defeated China’s Wu Yibing in the recent Asian Games gold medal match, is No. 101 in the PIF ATP Live Rankings and fast closing in on his career-high mark of No. 92.
In other qualifying results Tuesday at the Qi Zhong Tennis Centre, 20-year-old Japanese Rei Sakamoto survived an epic three-set battle with Frenchman Kyrian Jacquet 7-6(6), 4-6, 7-6(8). Sakamoto fired 13 aces and saved seven of nine break points faced to qualify for the second straight year.
Second seed and former Wimbledon quarter-finalist Roman Safiullin cruised into the main draw with a 6-2, 6-3 win over Shintaro Mochizuki.
China’s Rigele Te failed to qualify after falling 6-3, 6-2 to Ilia Simakin.
Former Top 10 Australian Bernard Tomic will contest an ATP Masters 1000 main draw for the first time since Montreal in 2019 after defeating Uzbekistan's Timofey Skatov 7-5, 6-4.
