Sliding doors moment opened up world of possibilities for China tennis star Bu Yunchaokete
A move with his grandparents when he was an infant led to the world No 65 player being sent to one of country’s famous sport schools
Had Bu Yunchaokete stayed close to his roots, in a city of fewer than 500,000 people in Xinjiang, in China’s far west, he would probably not have become one of his country’s best male tennis players.
But his sliding doors moment came when he was just an infant and his grandparents – who raised him after the death of his father – moved him from the Bortala Mongol Autonomous Prefecture to Xinjiang’s provincial capital, Urumqi, for a better standard of education.
While studying in Urumqi, five-year-old Bu was selected by a local coach out of hundreds of pupils to move to one of China's sports schools in Huzhou, where the country breeds the next generation of aspiring athletes.
“If I had stayed in my hometown, I would have enjoyed a different type of life,” Bu said after his 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 loss to Portugal’s Nuno Borges in the first round of the Bank of China Hong Kong Open.
“I feel like that kind of life is very chill, without any pressure at all. There are no distractions; it’s just very relaxing, it’s that kind of world. It’s hard for me to think about [what I would do for work there], but I’m into coffee right now, so I’d do something related to that, maybe open a cafe.”
The 22-year-old came close to pulling off an upset on Tuesday when he won the first set and was leading the final tiebreak 5-3 before eventually succumbing to Borges, the tournament’s No 5 seed.
