18 year olds battle in Chengdu

Two eighteen year olds battled it out for almost two and a half hours in Chengdu before a first round winner could be determined.

Yibing Wu, ranked 423 (career high 299 a fortnight ago) and given a wild card in his home nation, was in his first main draw in an ATP tournament since Auckland in January this year, where once again he received a wildcard.

Wu won the junior US Open in 2017.

He was facing lucky loser Felix Auger-Aliassime, a Canadian ranked 147 (career high 116 in August this year), twice finalist on the Challenger tour in 2018, successfully defending his Lyon title in June.

In a closely contested opening set, Yibing won a greater percentage of points on his serve than Felix, and a greater number of points on return, yet it was the Canadian who managed to convert one of the five break points assembled between the players.  Felix led 6-3.

Set two saw Felix winning a big share of points on first serve, while Yibing was strong on his second delivery.

The teenagers took it to a tie break where Yibing excelled seven points to two, and the match rolled into a third stanza.

Felix asserted control in the decider, using his greater experience (hard to imagine at just 18) at this level, and won the first clash between the pair 6-3 6-7(2) 6-1

Other ATP Chengdu first round results 

• Qualifier Ruben Bemelmans defeated Mischa Zverev 6-3 2-0 (retired)
• Matthew Ebden (6) defeated Evgeny Donskoy 6-3 6-4
• Sam Querrey defeated Guido Pella 7-6(6) 6-1
• Taylor Fritz defeated wildcard Chun Hsin Tseng 3-6 6-3 6-4
• Mikhail Kukushkin defeated Tennys Sandgren (8) 6-4 6-3
• Vasek Pospisil defeated Radu Albot 6-3 6-4
• Malek Jaziri defeated Marcos Baghdatis 7-6(7) 1-6 6-2
• Qualifier Lloyd Harris defeated Gaël Monfils (5) 3-6 6-2 6-1

WTA Tashkent first round results

• Kateryna Kozlova defeated Irina-Camelia Begu (1) 6-3 6-2
• Olga Danilovic defeated wildcard Anna Kalinskaya 6-4 6-1
• Arantxa Rus defeated Marta Kostyuk 6-4 6-3
• Wildcard Vera Zvonareva defeated Tamara Zidansek (3) 6-1 6-4
• Evgeniya Rodina (7) defeated Magdalena Frech 7-5 6-2
• Mona Barthel defeated wildcard Nigina Abduraimova 4-6 6-3 6-3
• Qualifier Ivana Jorovic defeated Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-3 6-2
• Vera Lapko (2) defeated Bojana Jovanovski Petrovic 6-1 6-3

ATP Shenzhen first round results

• Wildcard Andy Murray defeated wildcard Zhizhen Zhang 6-3 6-7(3) 4-2 (retired)
• Taro Daniel defeated qualifier Tatsuma Ito 2-6 7-5 7-6(5)
• Fernando Verdasco (5) defeated qualifier Jason Jung 6-3 6-2
• Denis Shapovalov (6) defeated Ilya Ivashka 7-5 2-6 6-3
• Alex de Minaur (7) defeated Yuichi Sugita 6-3 6-0
• Mackenzie McDonald defeated Lukas Lacko 5-7 6-0 5-0 (retired)
• Qualifier Ramkumar Ramanathan defeated Jiri Vesely 7-5 6-1