Zhang Zhizhen targets top 30, grand slam success, and first ATP career win in Shanghai
China’s top men’s player Zhang Zhizhen spends week training in Hong Kong and says maintaining form throughout season key to hitting goals
Zhang Zhizhen has set himself the goal of ending next year inside the top 30 on the ATP Tour, and would love to win his first professional singles title in his hometown of Shanghai.
China’s top men’s player, who is ranked No 45 in the world but briefly rose as high as No 31 in July, said stability would be the key to improving his standing in the game, even if he did end the year with an Olympic silver medal.
And Zhang, who arrived in Hong Kong on Monday for several days of training before flying to Perth on Sunday for the season-opening United Cup, was full of praise for local star Coleman Wong Chak-lam, suggesting the world No 170 was doing “much better” than he was at that stage of his career.
“The difference between me and the top players is the stability of maintaining good form,” Zhang said. “The difference is how to maintain good condition over a relatively long period.”
Before his mixed-doubles success in Paris alongside Wang Xinyu, the 28-year-old had reached the semi-finals of the Halle Open – an ATP 500 event – in June, where he lost to eventual champion Jannik Sinner.
He also made it through to the final of the Hangzhou Open in September, but then subsequently lost in the first round of the next five tournaments, starting with the China Open in Beijing and culminating in the Paris Masters.
