Miami Open: Hong Kong’s Wong ‘hungry for more’ after Djere ends his ATP adventure in first round
- Laslo Djere’s greater experience tells in 7-5, 7-6 win at Hard Rock Stadium on Friday
- But Serbian world No 35 full of praise for Hong Kong opponent who he says ‘will do really good’
Coleman Wong Chak-lam’s Miami Open came to a spirited but abrupt end at the Hard Rock Stadium on Friday, and the Hongkonger said the experience had only made him “hungry for a lot more”.
Wong slipped to a straight sets defeat to Laslo Djere, but broke the world No 35 several times over the course of the match, and at 5-3 up in the second set should probably have taken the game to a decider.
But the Serbian’s greater experience ultimately told in his 7-5, 7-6 win, while Wong’s greater number of unforced errors in his first appearance in the main draw of an ATP Masters 1000 tournament didn’t help matters.
“It’s obviously not easy to lose such a close match, but I tried my best,” the 19-year-old said. “It’s just a few points here and there in the tight moments I feel great and confidence [is high] because I’m close with these top players.”
Getting through to the first round will lift Wong to 188th in the world when the rankings are updated on Monday, and while he acknowledged that was “a big achievement” he has his sights set on greater things.
“I want to be ending this year top 150 or even top 100,” he said.
There was plenty of evidence to suggest Wong could live with Djere’s tennis, and on several occasions he pulled his opponent into awkward positions, either forcing the error or sending him wide, allowing himself plenty of time to plant his feet and pick his shots.
“I did not know this was his first ATP match, he did really good,” Djere said afterwards. “If he continues this way, he will do really good.”
Wong entered the open as a wild card and came through two tough qualifiers, against Hugo Gaston and Sumit Nagal, who are ranked in the world’s top 100.
Across both games, he racked up 26 aces, 16 of which came against Nagal, a performance the Hongkonger hailed as “one of my best”.
But faced with a tougher opponent, Wong was unable to utilise his killer serve, scoring only six aces and committing five double faults.
The match went with serve until the 11th game of the first set, which started with Wong double faulting, and ended with Djere forcing a forehand to break for the first time.
Djere broke again to go 3-1 up in the second, only for Wong to rattle off four games and at 5-3 the Serbian was in a hole. The pair traded breaks again to set up a tiebreaker, and the world No 35 rallied to take the match in more than two hours and 20 minutes.
The Hongkonger’s spirited performance divided opinions online, with a Weibo user from Liaoning saying Wong had been on “another level” since beating Wu Yibing at the Asian Games.
“I watched him played at the ATP 250 event in Hong Kong, he is quite good, I think his chances to keep improving and become better is pretty good,” read another comment.
Other social media commentators were more reserved, and compared him with China’s Shang Juncheng, who ranks No 124 in the world, and is also playing in Miami this week.
“His potential is very good,” a Weibo user from Shanghai, said. “But there is a slight gap between him and Shang.”
Djere moves on to face former world No 8 and Olympic silver medallist, Russia’s Karen Khachanov, in the second round.
Wong, meanwhile, will shift his focus to four coming challenger events, the Head Busan Open and Gwangju Open Challenger in South Korea, and the Shenzhen Luohu Challenger and Guangzhou Nansha International Challenger in mainland China.
