Hangzhou (China) (AFP) – Zhang Zhizhen fought back to become the first Chinese men’s singles tennis champion at the Asian Games since 1994 with victory over Japan’s Yosuke Watanuki on Saturday in Hangzhou.
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It caps a strong few months for Zhang, who was the first man from China to beat a top-five player last month when he defeated Casper Ruud to reach the last 32 at the US Open.
The 26-year-old from Shanghai also reached the same stage at this year’s French Open and he carried on that form to defeat Watanuki 6-4, 7-6 (9/7) in the Hangzhou final.
“In the first set I told myself to calm down because I was rushing too much,” said Zhang.
“And in the second set, to be patient, keep going, keep going all the time and try to find some chances.”
In front of a roaring home crowd, the 60th-ranked Zhang made a slow start and fell 4-1 behind in the first set after being broken twice by 77th-ranked Watanuki.
But he won the next five games to take the first set, then held his serve for 4-3 in a pivotal seventh game in the second.
The pair continued to slug it out into a tiebreak, before Zhang converted his third match point and hurled away his racquet in celebration.
India’s Rohan Bopanna, a former Grand Slam mixed doubles champion, added to his collection of titles at the age of 43.
Along with Rutuja Bhosale, they defeated Taiwan’s Liang En-shuo and Huang Tsung-hao after a super-tiebreak, 2-6, 6-3, 10-4, for mixed doubles gold.
Chan Hao-ching and Chang Yung-jan won gold in the women’s doubles by beating fellow Taiwanese pair Lee Ya-hsuan and Liang 6-4, 6-3.
© 2023 AFP
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