Young Taiwanese tennis star Yang Tsung-hua wrote a new page in Taiwan’s tennis history as he defeated 12th seed Jerzy Janowicz of Poland in straight sets 6-3, 7-5, in the final of the boys’ singles at the French Open yesterday, becoming the first ever boys’ Grand Slam singles champion from Taiwan and the first Asian player to win the boys’ singles at one of the four Grand Slam tournaments in 17 years.
Yang made it to the final of the boys’ singles at the Australian Open earlier this year, but lost and finished the runner-up. Although not one of the seeded players at the French Open, he powered his way through to the final against Janowicz, who also lost to Yang at the Australian Open.
Yang broke the Janowicz serve in the second game of the first set to lead 3-0 and then held his serve to take the set 6-3.
PHOTO: AFP
However, at the beginning of the second set, Janowicz made a comeback by breaking Yang’s first two service games to lead 5-0. Yang rallied once more and managed to break his rival’s serve twice and hold his own for three consecutive games, making it a tie at 5-5.
In the 11th game, Janowicz held serve, and Yang held his own serve in the following game to set up a tie-break.
The pair fought fiercely in the tie-break until Yang took a 6-5 lead and he broke the Janowicz serve on his first championship point to defeat the Pole 7-5.
The biggest previous achievement by Taiwanese tennis players at the four Grand Slam boys’ singles tennis tournaments in the past was second place — Jimmy Wan was a runner-up at the Australia Open and at Wimbledon in 2001, while Yang equaled that achievement at the Australian Open this year.
With the win yesterday Yang became the first Asian tennis player to win a Grand Slam boys’ championship since India’s L. Paes won the US Open boys’ singles title in 1991.
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