Madrid Open: Hong Kong’s Coleman Wong loses to 373rd-ranked Italian
The 20-year-old, ranked 169, puts up a tough fight initially against last year’s French Open junior doubles finalist before bowing out
Hong Kong’s Coleman Wong Chak-lam lost his first-round match at the Madrid Open on Wednesday, in his first foray onto a clay court this season.
Wong, the highest-ranked player in Hong Kong’s history, lost 7-6, 6-1 to Italy’s Federico Cina in a match that lasted one hour, 18 minutes.
After a tight first set, in which the 373rd-ranked Cina won the tiebreak 7-5, Wong failed to hold his serve in the second and soon fell behind 3-0 before clawing back to 3-1.
The 18-year-old Italian, who has won an ITF World Tennis Tour clay title and was a junior doubles finalist at the clay-court French Open last year, then re-established his three-game lead at 4-1 before wrapping up the set 6-1 and taking the match.
Wong, 20, who has trained at the Rafa Nadal Academy in Spain for the past three years, is ranked 169th after an impressive run in the Miami Open last month, when he beat world No 14 Ben Shelton before losing to Australian Adam Walton in the third round.