17 year-old Wibing Yu joined some esteemed company this week by winning his first Challenger title. The Chinese star ranked No.496, entered the tournament as a wildcard and proceeded to win the title without dropping a set.
The Chinese youngster defeated 2nd seed Peter Polansky in the first round, before a retirement win against Shuichi Sekiguchi in the second. 5th seed Horiki Moriya and Mathias Bachinger also both fell, before Yu defeated one of the most decorated players in Challenger history, Yen-Hsun Lu, in the final 7-6, ret.
Yu is the current Junior No.1 after winning the Junior US Open Singles and Doubles. He was also a semi-finalist at the Junior Australian Open. His singles ranking is likely to move more than 100 places when the new rankings appear tomorrow.
Though there may have been some element of luck with two retirement wins, the fact that Yu defeated the 2nd and 5th seeds independently suggests that this is much more than a fluke run.
The tournament is also notable for seeing Zhe Zhang reach the semi-finals, and for Omar Jasika reaching the quarters after a barren run since an impressive start to the year in the Australasian swing.
In Istanbul another young player Matteo Berretttini had another impressive run. The tall Italian boasts a huge serve, and raced through to the final with wins over the likes of Ricardas Berankis, Evgeny Donskoy, and Alexander Bublik.
The Italian’s run was stopped in the final though, as top seed Malek Jaziri edged a 7-6, 0-6, 7-5 win.
