It’s been a tough year for Austin Krajicek. Since reaching a career-high ranking of No.94 in October 2015, the American has slumped. 2017 has been difficult, with the 27 year-old at one point slipping out of the Top 300.
Krajicek has managed a better run at the end of the season though, reaching the quarter-finals of the Shenzhen Challenger. The left-hander managed to produce a ranking upset of 58 places to knock out 9th seed Duckhee Lee 7-5, 3-6, 6-3 in the Chinese city.
Add that to the first round win against wildcard Chuhan Wang, and Krajicek has reached the last eight (or better) of a Challenger tournament for just the third time in 2017.
The win for the nephew of former Wimbledon champion Richard Krajicek gives him a shot at the No.1 seed in the tournament. That is the veteran Russian Mikhail Youzhny, a former US Open semi-finalist.
Youzhny has made an excellent start to the tournament, dropping just seven games across his opening two matches. The tournament, held in the same city as an early season ATP event, also features the likes of Blaz Kavcic, Radu Albot.
18 year-old Chinese star Yibing Wu also made his way to the quarter-finals. The recent winner of the US Open Junior Boy’s title stunned 5th seed Thiago Monteiro in the first round, and then dropped just three games in a rout of Zhe Li in the second round. Wu could climb into the Top 200 of the ATP rankings for the first time should he reach the semis. He faces Kavcic in the quarter-finals.
The Shenzhen Challenger is a new addition to the Challenger tour, adding to the Men’s ATP 250 event that takes place earlier in the year in the same city. A WTA event is also held in the same week and on the same site as the Men’s Challenger.
