French Open: Hong Kong’s Coleman Wong set for first grand slam appearance in Roland Garros qualifiers
- The 19-year-old is among 128 players preparing for the qualifying rounds in Paris, with 16 places in the main draw up for grabs
- Wong earned his spot after climbing the rankings to No 180 in the world, a career high
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Hong Kong tennis star Coleman Wong Chak-lam is set to play in his first men’s grand slam tournament after securing a spot in the French Open qualifiers.
The teenager was in Paris preparing for his first qualifying match, with the hope of winning three matches and becoming one of the 16 who will reach the main draw. He will be among a pool of 128 players starting the qualifying rounds from Monday.
Wong earned his place after this month rising to a career-high world ranking of 180.
Since graduating from the junior ranks to the men’s circuit last September, Wong, who turns 20 in three weeks’ time, has been playing largely on the second-tier ATP Challenger Tour, and reached finals in Shenzhen, Playford and New Delhi.
Despite losing on all three occasions, twice to James Duckworth of Australia and once to Geoffrey Blancaneaux of France, Wong’s runners-up results earned him significant ranking points.
Reaching the main draw of the ATP Masters in Miami, becoming the first player from Hong Kong to do so, also helped to propel Wong from world No 477 last October to No 192 at the start of last month.
Wong then entered four Challenger Tour events in South Korea and China during April. He reached the quarter-finals in Busan before losing to South Korean No 1 Hong Seong-chan, who had also triumphed when the pair met in the Asian Games last September.
Michael Cheng Ming-git, president of the Hong Kong, China Tennis Association, lauded Wong’s progress.
“He is an inspiration to [the younger generation] and plays a great role in facilitating the development of tennis in Hong Kong,” Cheng said. “He has a lot of room for improvement still.
“He has a real passion for the game and doing things the right way to try to get better every day. Dare I say, we have not seen him at his best yet.”
Cheng added that Wong had a chance of reaching the season-ending Next Gen ATP Finals, which run from December 18 to 22 in Saudi Arabia and will feature the ATP Tour season’s leading eight singles players aged 20 or under.
The top seven will qualify automatically, with the eighth spot reserved for a wild card. Wong is eighth at present, while Shang Juncheng of China is third.
A two-time junior grand slam doubles tournament winner, Wong is not the first Hongkonger to appear in the men’s singles of one of tennis’ four majors.
The first were Choy Wai-chuen and Tsui Wai-pui, at the 1937 French Open, where both reached the second round.
Later, Ip Koon-hung featured at Wimbledon three years in a row in the 1950s, and Edwin Tsai reached the second round in 1953 and 1954.
Tsai and Ip also teamed up in the Wimbledon men’s doubles, reaching the second round in 1952 and 1954.
