Coleman Wong makes more Hong Kong history, reaches main draw of US Open
The 21-year-old will earn his biggest payday when he becomes first player from city to reach men’s singles draw in New York in Open era
Coleman Wong Chak-lam raised the bar for Hong Kong tennis players again in New York on Friday, when he became the first player from the city to reach the main draw of the US Open in the modern era.
The 21-year-old swept aside Britain’s Billy Harris in straight sets, winning 6-3, 6-4 in an hour and 17 minutes in his third and final qualifying match.
Wong will face American Aleksandar Kovacevic in his first round match on Monday night, the second day of the tournament, and will earn his biggest tennis payday whatever the result.
Wong, who has won US$590,724 in career prize money, will earn US$110,000 just for making the first round of the year’s final grand slam event, which starts on Sunday for the first time.
Should 174th-ranked Wong get past Kovacevic, who has an ATP ranking of 71, he will face either No 22 seed Ugo Humbert of France or Australia’s Adam Walton.
And if Wong gets into the third round, his likely opponent is last year’s Hong Kong Open winner, 15th seed Andrey Rublev of Russia.