Hong Kong’s Coleman Wong crashes out in semi-finals of ATP Challenger in Shanghai
Hong Kong’s world No 149 let down by his service game against Japanese world No 239 Sho Shimabukuro
Coleman Wong Chak-lam crashed out at the semi-final stage of the ATP Challenger in Shanghai on Saturday, losing in straight sets to Japan’s Sho Shimabukuro.
The Hong Kong tennis star, whose four career Challenger final appearances have all ended in defeat, could not reproduce his serving form of recent days as he went down 6-3, 7-6.
Ranked No 149 in the world, Wong enjoyed a decent first-serve success ratio and an even higher winning percentage on his first serves as he breezed past Belarusian Egor Gerasimov, Britain’s Ryan Peniston and Beibit Zhukayev of Kazakhstan in straight sets to reach the last four.
But the tournament fourth seed, who had 27 aces across his three wins from the round of 32 onwards, managed only five against world No 239 Shimabukuro, who hit 12 en route to victory.
Powered by seven aces, the 27-year-old Japanese was dominant in the first set.
He broke Wong in the opening service game and did not look back before converting his second break point opportunity to take the first set inside 38 minutes.
