Zhizhen Zhang suffered a horrific US Open experience but weathered the storm, recovered and this week elevated his ranking into the top 100, to become the first Chinese male to enter the ATP Top 100 rankings.
The 26 year old now ranked no. 97 qualified for the US Open main draw for the first time in August by beating Marco Trungelitti, Zizou Bergs and Andrea Collarini and then in the first round held seven match points in the third set vs. Tim van Rijthoven, only to lose 63 76 (4) 67 (9) 16 46.
Since that bitter defeat to the world no. 117, Zhang has won 10 matches and lost 4 in ATP main draws, qualies and Davis Cup vs Uruguay.
Zhang may have company soon though in the top 100 with two other Chinese players. 17 year old Juncheng Shang is ranked 202. 23 year old Yibing Wu is currently ranked 117.
ATP · China · Zhizhen Zhang
catherine · October 26, 2022 at 3:50 pm
All you want to know about Tursunov, coaching and what happened with Emma Raducanu:
https://www.tennismajors.com/wta-tour-news/tursunov-i-wasnt-hopping-from-one-player-to-another-i-wouldnt-do-that-631908.html
Has Tursunov ever coached an ATP player ? Might be interesting. Reading about the young Chinese players.
catherine · October 26, 2022 at 3:59 pm
Gearing up for the WTA finals – an ex=Tursunov pupil has an unenviable record this year:
‘Aryna Sabalenka will be the only WTA player to finish the year with more than 400 double faults scored this season.’
Sabalenka finally hired a biomechanic to help unravel her serving yips and there was some improvement.
Sam · October 26, 2022 at 6:35 pm
There’s really never been a Chinese guy in the top 100 before?? 🧐 Had no idea.
Scoop Malinowski · October 26, 2022 at 9:04 pm
Catherine, Tursunov wasted a lot of words there, sounds like he wanted that long term money from the money machine Raducanu but her team or she didn’t like that idea, for whatever reason. It doesn’t say if Bencic dumped her previous coach and boyfriend. Bencic first broke in as coach for Vesnina, no he has not coached at ATP player yet.
Scoop Malinowski · October 26, 2022 at 9:05 pm
Sabalenka may be the most interesting uninteresting player in the wta. )
catherine · October 27, 2022 at 4:38 am
Scoop – a couple of things I got from the Tursunov interview, and also from a comment about Dimitry I read a while ago, from someone who knows him. First, that he’s not one for the long haul, whatever he may imply- his attention span isn’t that great and maybe this is a reason he didn’t achieve more as a player.
Also, he emphasises that Emma is a work in progress, she’s not like Swiatek who is around the same age. I’d guess Emma needs a couple of years at least, maybe longer, to develop and mature. If her fans understood that perhaps they’d give her an easier ride.
catherine · October 27, 2022 at 6:03 am
Naturally the press have taken this interview and made it sound as if there is something really wrong with Emma whereas he is actually very complimentary about her.
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2022/oct/27/dmitry-tursunov-says-he-opted-against-emma-raducanu-role-due-to-red-flags
Can just imagine what those ‘red flags’ are supposed to mean. No wonder Emma’s team didn’t respond.
Scoop Malinowski · October 27, 2022 at 7:39 am
Catherine, I interpreted it as Tursunov is tired of having the most unstable job in sports, he’s tired of being mistreated, abused and dumped by wta players, he wants long term stability, like everybody else. wta players don’t can’t give that to any coaches. Raducanu is just like every other wta player in that regard. shameful the tennis media is trying to villainize her for doing what ever other wta player does. avoid long term commitments to coaches.
catherine · October 27, 2022 at 8:00 am
Yes, on the whole I agree with that. No sensible player is going to sign up for a long term commitment because we can’t foretell the future.
Maybe active coaches shouldn’t give interviews to the media.
Those ‘red flags’ were just red meat to the Brit press.
Scoop Malinowski · October 27, 2022 at 10:33 am
Maybe Tursunov asking for at least 2 years commitment from Raducanu was a major red flag for her and her team. Very few wta coaches give interviews or say anything remotely interesting, it’s all cliches. They know they are walking on eggshells, to be a wta coach is the most unstable job in pro sports. Ask Jimmy Connors. Also it happens in atp too, Thiem dumped Muster as coach in the middle of a grand slam.
catherine · October 29, 2022 at 9:13 am
This is a long article but I found it fascinating for many reasons. The things that go on behind the scenes….
https://opencourt.ca/2022/10/28/after-the-great-experiment-andreescu-rebuild-osaka/
Scoop Malinowski · October 29, 2022 at 5:38 pm
Sillah wanted to double his money it seems. Nice try but there’s always going to be the one player who feels slighted, there’s no way to do it exactly 5050. Bibi found that out early and lost trust. These players are too competitive to team up with another top player. It never works. One always gains an edge. For the coach or physio, it’s all about the money. He can bull jive and hustle his conjob all day long but in the end, the physio is just a small, easily replaceable piece of the puzzle. One month and the player learns everything, every drill, every exercise the physio has. It’s an unstable job. Actually, the physio should pay the champion player to be a part of the entourage, it’s priceless exposure. The physio has no leverage at all the squeeze money from the player. But Sillah tried to double down on Bibi ad Osaka. It almost worked.