Coleman Wong eyes Davis Cup success with Hong Kong after US Open heroics, rankings rise

Coleman Wong Chak-lam returned to Hong Kong on Monday with the adulation of fans at the US Open still ringing in his ears, and said he hoped to build on his momentum for the city’s Davis Cup clash with Uzbekistan this month.

As he was in New York, Wong and his teammates will be underdogs against their seeded opponents, but the 21-year-old, who has jumped 27 places to No 146 in the world on the back of his performance, said he had learned plenty of lessons from his historic run at Flushing Meadows.

Defeat in the third round to Andrey Rublev, the world No 15, marked a series of firsts for Wong, not least of which was his first experience of going a full five sets. The 2-6, 6-4, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 defeat took a gruelling three hours and 10 minutes on the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Centre’s Grandstand court.

“I learned how to handle everything on the court, physically and tactically, because [Rublev] was like playing only in the first set when he was in the decider; it looked as if it was nothing for him, but I was really tired,” said Wong, who landed with his parents at Hong Kong International Airport just after 4.30am and was greeted by his sister, Elana, and around 30 members of the media.

“It’s my first grand slam. The atmosphere was just different, as were the things I needed to do every day. I looked around the dressing room and there was Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz, there was a lot of them I used to watch only on television. I’d used to think the difference [with them] was so big, but you won’t know it until you keep playing on.”

The first Hongkonger, man or woman, to reach the third round of a grand slam, Wong battled through three qualifying rounds to reach the main draw, and then beat world No 71 Aleksandar Kovacevic and world No 85 Adam Walton before coming up against Rublev.