#NextGenATP Shang sinks Nishikori on home soil in Chengdu

p#NextGenATP Chinese star a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.atptour.com/en/players/juncheng--shang/s0re/overview" target="_blank"Shang Juncheng/a delivered in front of a lively home crowd on Thursday at the a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/chengdu/7581/overview'Chengdu Open/a, where he moved past former World No. 4 a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/kei-nishikori/n552/overview'Kei Nishikori/a 6-4, 6-4 in a high-quality first-round match./p

pShang is one of the most exciting prospects on the ATP Tour and the 19-year-old showed why against the 34-year-old Nishikori. He hit cleanly off both wings and dug deep when serving for the match in the second set, fending off two break points before eventually advancing to level the pairrsquo;s Lexus ATP Head2Head series at 1-1./p

pShang was full of praise for Nishikori after his win./p

p"His returns are unbelievable, some of the best in the world," Shang said. "His game is taking the ball early. He doesn't give you much time and he can defend anything that is coming at him. All the players are tricky but it is tough to play him because he moves in the same way as I do. It was a very good match and he is a really good guy and we get along well off the court."/p

blockquote class="twitter-tweet"

p lang="en" dir="ltr"Shang shines in Chengdu ????br /

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The 19-year-old continues to impress as he rallies past Nishikori 6-4 6-4!a href="https://twitter.com/ChengduOpen?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"@ChengduOpen/a | a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ChengduOpen?src=hashamp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"#ChengduOpen/a a href="https://t.co/nNb1rapOss"pic.twitter.com/nNb1rapOss/a/p

mdash; ATP Tour (@atptour) a href="https://twitter.com/atptour/status/1836688748211327221?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"September 19, 2024/a/blockquote

script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"/script

pShang has now earned 20 tour-level wins in a season for the first time, highlighted by semi-final runs in Hong Kong and Atlanta. The lefty will hope to perform well on home soil during the Asian swing in an aim to further cement his chances of qualifying for the a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/next-gen-atp-finals/7696/overview'Next Gen ATP Finals presented by PIF/a, due to take place from 18-22 December. Shang is currently third in the PIF ATP Live Race To Jeddah./p

p"The goal for Asia is to be healthy and happy," said Shang, who has won his past seven first-round matches. "I don't get to play at home much. The fans don't get to watch the Chinese players much, so it is to have fun."/p

pNishikori was making his debut in Chengdu. The 12-time tour-level titlist struck the ball well against Shang but struggled physically at times, receiving treatment on his left leg and right elbow./p

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pAustralian Alexsandar Vukic saved one match point to earn a hard-fought 3-6, 7-6(9), 6-4 win against former World No. 12 a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/borna-coric/cg80/overview'Borna Coric/a at the ATP 250./p

pVukic, who leads Coric 2-0 in the pairrsquo;s Lexus ATP Head2Head series, will aim to reach the quarter-finals at a tour-level hard-court event for the first time this season when he takes on Spaniard a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/pedro-martinez/mo44/overview'Pedro Martinez/a in the second round./p

pLast year’s finalist a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/roman-safiullin/sx50/overview'Roman Safiullin/a made a winning start against a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/fabio-fognini/f510/overview'Fabio Fognini/a, defeating the Italian 6-3, 4-6, 6-4./p

pSafiullin, who did not drop a set en route to the final last year before losing to a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/alexander-zverev/z355/overview'Alexander Zverev/a, fired 27 winners, including 12 aces according to Infosys ATP Stats to advance after two hours and nine minutes. He will meet Shang in the second round./p

pFifth seed a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/adrian-mannarino/me82/overview'Adrian Mannarino/a earned a first-round win, moving past countryman a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/terence-atmane/a0gc/overview'Terence Atmane/a 6-7(9), 6-1, 6-3. Mannarino won three tour-level titles last year but is still searching for his first crown in 2024./p

p

pChinese wild card Zhou Yi earned his first ATP Tour win after a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/chun-hsin-tseng/t0ap/overview'Chun-Hsin Tseng/a was forced to retire in the third set. Zhou led 2-6, 6-1, 3-1 when Tseng stopped. The No. 531 player in the PIF ATP Rankings meets Mannarino in the second round./p

pIn other action, qualifier a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/alibek-kachmazov/k0e6/overview'Alibek Kachmazov/a advanced, defeating American a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/aleksandar-kovacevic/k0az/overview'Aleksandar Kovacevic/a 6-4, 7-6(7), while a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/yannick-hanfmann/h997/overview'Yannick Hanfmann/a beat Japanese wild card a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/shintaro-mochizuki/m0hu/overview'Shintaro Mochizuki/a 6-4, 7-6(4). a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/christopher-oconnell/o483/overview'Christopher O'Connell/a eliminated a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/pavel-kotov/k09f/overview'Pavel Kotov/a 6-4, 7-5./p

pArgentine qualifier a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/federico-agustin-gomez/gj16/overview'Federico Agustin Gomez/a set a clash with second seed a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/alexander-bublik/bk92/overview'Alexander Bublik/a after beating Frenchman a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/alexandre-muller/mp20/overview'Alexandre Muller/a 6-4, 7-5./p

p[NEWSLETTER FORM]/p