China’s new No 1 Wu Yibing surges into first ATP final with milestone win

James Richardson 12 Feb 2023 7:10 AM

The man set to become the highest-ranked Chinese player on the ATP Rankings, Wu Yibing, downed Taylor Fritz to become the first man from his country to feature in a tour-level final in the Open era.

Capping a fine week with a third win over a seeded player and his first career top-ten win over Fritz with a come-from-behind 6-7 (3), 7-5, 6-4 victory.

The 23-year-old had dumped third seed Denis Shapovalov and eighth seed Adrian Mannarino earlier this week.

Wu insists that he wasn’t thinking about anything other than playing his best game.

“When I played today I wasn’t thinking about any score or winning. I just tried to perform my best,” Wu said in his on-court interview.

He also thanked the fans who were very clearly behind Fritz but appreciated the efforts of Wu.

Wu was in trouble a few times in the second set after dropping the first set in 58 minutes—he had to fend off five break points serving at 1-2, and was even two points away from dropping a break at 4-5, 0-30.

However, Wu held, then broke Fritz, and held again to win the second set. Wu then broke serve again at 2-all in the third and holding on to that break for the rest of the match, eventually serving it out a few games later.

Meanwhile, John Isner advanced to his 31st ATP Tour final on Saturday with a 3-6, 7-5, 7-6(4) victory ovr fellow American J.J. Wolf.

Isner admitted that his serve bailed him out on a fair few occasions.

“I saved a lot of break points with unreturnable serves. Without that I would have been dusted off the court 6-3, 6-4,” Isner said in his on-court interview. “So I’m of course very fortunate to have that weapon in my pocket, and I needed every bit of it today.

“It was an absolute battle, so I’m pretty tired. But I’m absolutely ecstatic to be in the final tomorrow here in Dallas.”

The tour veteran was asked how his body was holding up during this deep run in Dallas and admitted he was feeling it.

“Truthfully, it feels terrible right now,” he said.

“I’m 38 in April. It’s not getting any easier. I started off a little slow, a little sluggish, but in the third set I actually felt the best I felt the whole match. I had a lot of adrenaline there at the end and I was able to hold my nerve and win.

“Right now the name of the game is recovery. I’ll get back in the training room and try to get this big body ready for tomorrow.”

The Dallas Open final gets underway at 19:00 (GMT).