Taiwan’s Tony Wu yesterday beat Mackenzie McDonald of the US to win the Nonthaburi Challenger IV in Thailand, his first challenger victory since 2022.
The 26-year-old world No. 315, who won both his qualifiers to advance to the main draw, has been on a hot streak this month, winning his past nine matches, including two that ensured Taiwan’s victory in their Davis Cup World Group I tie.
Wu took just more than two hours to top world No. 172 McDonald 6-3, 7-6 (7/4) to win his second challenger tournament since the Tallahassee Tennis Challenger in 2022.
Photo courtesy of Tony Wu
Wu’s Tallahassee win followed two years of finishing as a runner-up in Challenger events. Wu was also runner-up in last year’s Tallahassee tournament.
On Saturday, Wu toppled Australia’s James McCabe 6-1, 3-6, 7-6 (7/2) in the semi-final, after advancing with a confident 6-1, 6-1 victory over Dalibor Svrcina of the Czech Republic on Friday.
Wu earlier this month won both his singles matches in Taiwan’s Davis Cup World Group I tie in Taipei to ensure their narrow 3-2 victory over Bosnia and Herzegovina and earn Taiwan a spot in next year’s Davis Cup Qualifiers.
Meanwhile, at the China Open, Australian Open winner Hsieh Su-wei of Taiwan and Chinese partner Wang Xinyu crashed out of the opening round of the women’s doubles, losing 7-5, 6-2 to top seeds Erin Routliffe of New Zealand and Canada’s Gabriela Dabrowski.
Seventh seeds Chan Hao-ching and Russian partner Veronika Kudermetova on Saturday advanced to the round of 16 after defeating fellow Taiwanese Wu Fang-hsien and Ulrikke Eikeri of Norway 6-4, 6-3.
They are today to face Czechia’s Karolina Muchova and Spain’s Paula Badosa.
In women’s singles, Zhang Shuai extended her fairytale China Open as the home player ranked 595th in the world powered into the last 16 in straight sets to make more history.
The 35-year-old wildcard had not won a singles match in more than 600 days when she arrived at the prestigious WTA 1000 event in Beijing last week.
Her run of 24 straight defeats was the longest such barren spell on tour since Madeleine Pegel lost her first 29 matches from 1968 to 1972.
Zhang, a two-time Grand Slam quarter-finalist who has been plagued by injuries, has now won three matches in a row after a 6-2, 6-3 defeat of Belgium’s Greet Minnen.
Zhang, who faced Minnen as the lowest-ranked player to reach the China Open third round in the tournament’s history, faces Poland’s Magdalena Frech next.
Meanwhile, US Open runner-up Jessica Pegula survived a scare to reach the last 16 and a meeting with Badosa.
The second seed from the US fought back in Beijing to beat Kudermetova 6-7 (9/11), 6-1, 6-2.
Additional reporting by AFP
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