Jerry Shang casts doubt on Hong Kong return, as Kazakh conqueror rues loss of easy matches
Chinese star suffers with sore throat during defeat after injury withdrawal last year, Marcos Giron through to face No 2 seed Bublik
Alexander Bublik said he missed “the easy matches” from the professional tour of five years ago, after he resisted a second-set fightback from world No 406 Jerry Shang Juncheng in their Bank of China Hong Kong Tennis Open quarter-final on Friday.
The Kazakh won 6-1, 7-6 in one hour and 25 minutes to book a semi-final clash with Marcos Giron of America.
Bublik raced into a 5-0 lead and, after Shang finally got on the board following a sixth game of six deuces, wrapped up the set in 28 minutes.
Shang, who later raised the possibility that he might skip Hong Kong next year, was suffering from a sore throat and called for medication early in the second set. He increased his level, but Bublik saved a set point on his own serve at 5-6, before speeding through the tiebreak for the loss of only two points.
Bublik, who will enter the world’s top 10 should he claim his ninth career title this weekend, acknowledged it was “not good for me” that the men’s tour talent pool had grown so deep.
“I prefer easy matches, I like the tennis that it was five years ago when you had a bunch of random people playing,” he said.
“Now it doesn’t matter who you play; a guy [ranked] 300 in the world, a guy top 10, it’s still the same level, besides the main two guys [Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner]. I prefer easy matches.”