Wu Yibing is back! Chinese star wins Challenger title in second outing of year
pa rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.atptour.com/en/players/yibing-wu/wb32/overview" target="_blank"Wu Yibing/a capped a dream comeback week Saturday when he was crowned champion at the ATP Challenger Tour event in Jinan, China./p
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Playing in just his second tournament since last yearrsquo;s a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/us-open/560/overview'US Open/a and first since the ATP 250 in Houston more than four months ago, Wu built upon his level each match./p
pHe began the week down 0-4 to a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/stefanos-sakellaridis/s0kt/overview'Stefanos Sakellaridis/a in the first round, but the home favourite found greater consistency to eventually claim his fifth ATP Challenger Tour title. The 24-year-old defeated Japanrsquo;s a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/rio-noguchi/n09u/overview'Rio Noguchi/a 7-5, 6-3 in the a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/scores/archive/jinan/7746/2024/results'2024 Jinan Open/a final./p
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ldquo;That was my goal before coming here,rdquo; the wild card Wu said of winning the trophy. ldquo;I have high expectations of myself and also my team, we all work hard for it. Itrsquo;s been more than [four] months since my last tournament. We all gave our best, tried to do everything the correct way and I think I deserved to win this tournament./p
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ldquo;I feel happy. Itrsquo;s the first step of coming back. And hopefully more to come.rdquo;/p
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In 2023, Wu became Chinarsquo;s first ATP Tour titlist when he won the a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/dallas/424/overview'Dallas Open/a. He ascended to a career-high No. 54 in the PIF ATP Rankings a few months later. But injuries have since hindered the Hangzhou native. Wu looks forward to continuing his return during the Asian hard-court swing.
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ldquo;Hopefully the more I play and the more rhythm I get, I can play my top level, which hopefully comes soon,rdquo; said Wu./p
pIn other Challenger action, Argentine a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/juan-bautista-torres/t0dm/overview'Juan Bautista Torres/a captured his second title at that level at the IZIDA Cup in Dobrich, Bulgaria. The 22-year-old rallied past a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/ivan-gakhov/ge28/overview'Ivan Gakhov/a 5-7, 6-0, 7-5 in a two-hour, 27-minute title match.nbsp;/p
pThe Buenos Aires native earned a decisive break at 5-5 in the final set before closing out the championship on his serve.nbsp;Torres, who won his first Challenger title in June 2022 in Troyes, needed a deciding set in three of his five matches on the Bulgarian clay./p
pstrongDid You Know?/strongbr /
Former Top 5 stars a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/kei-nishikori/n552/overview'Kei Nishikori/a and a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/marin-cilic/c977/overview'Marin Cilic/a will be competing this upcoming week on the ATP Challenger Tour. Nishikori is playing in Como, Italy, where main-draw action begins 26 August. Cilic makes his return from injury at the Manacor Challenger, held at the Rafa Nadal Academy by Movistar. Main draw begins 27 August./p
p[NEWSLETTER FORM]/p