On Wednesday, Coleman Wong led No. 8 seed Hong Seongchan of Korea by a set and a break but could not quite sustain the momentum, as he fell just shy of a medal in a 6-4 4-6 3-6 quarterfinal loss. In women’s doubles, Eudice Chong and Cody Wong were also a win away from a medal but lost a tight match 3-6 4-6 to the more experienced Chinese Taipei pairing of No. 2 seed Latisha Chan and Angel Chan, who reached career-highs of No. 1 and No. 5 respectively in the WTA doubles rankings.
In the last match of the day at the Hangzhou Olympic Tennis Centre, Coleman Wong and Eudice Chong were defeated in the third round of the mixed doubled by No. 3 seed Hsu Yu-Hsiou and Angel Chan of Chinese Taipei in straights sets 6-3 6-4. Wong said after his seventh match in three days: “I had a 6-4 3-0 lead in the singles but the opponent was super consistent, getting everything back, as if he was playing up another level. I had a slight cramp towards the end, but I was fine for the mixed. We played good, but just came up a little short today.”
Against Hong in the quarters, Wong’s first serve percentage in the first set was 66%, second set 53%, and third set 46%. On the contrary, Hong managed to serve better as the match went on, going from 57% in the first to 65% in the second and then 77% in the third on the first delivery. Although Wong fought off seven break points in all, it was the Korean who managed to finish the stronger of the two with two breaks in the third to progress to the medal rounds.
Meanwhile, No. 5 seed Eudice Chong and Cody Wong played a close match against the Chan Sisters from Chinese Taipei, whose Asian Games pedigree is hard to deny. At the Doha AG in 2006, Latisha Chan won a silver in women’s doubles with Chuang Chia-Jung and a gold in the team event. At the Guangzhou AG in 2010, Latisha Chan won golds in women’s doubles with Chuang Chia-Jung and mixed doubles with Yang Tsung-Hua and a silver in the women’s team event. At the Incheon AG in 2014, Latisha and Angel Chan won a bronze in women’s doubles and a gold in the team event. At the Jakarta-Palembang AG in 2018, Latisha and Angel Chan won a silver in women’s doubles.
Games were close and the HK duo fought tooth and nail to fend off 5 of 8 break points against their serve. They were also unlucky on a couple of break point opportunities on the No. 2 seed’s serve but the Chan’s ended up saving 8 of 9 to thwart the HK reps.
“Obviously, our opponents today were very tough, Latisha was a former No. 1 in doubles, and her sister was also top 5. Eudice and Cody stepped up right from the start, so every game was very close. The girls had nine break chances but only got one, and those were the crucial points that cost us the match. They played good, but not good enough to win against those opponents today,” remarked women’s team coach, Zhang Ling.
Cody Wong: “It’s a great experience to represent Hong Kong at the Asian Games for the first time. Nice to have a team cheering for us. Pretty disappointed about the quarterfinal. We actually had lots of chances, but we lost a number of close deuces. Hope we can play more and gain more experience.”
Earlier in the third round, Wong pulled off the biggest win of his career when he saved five match points from 6-1 down in the third set tiebreak to beat 3rd-seed and 2018 Asian Games silver medalist, Wu Yibing 6-4 3-6 7-6(6). At the Dallas Open in February, Wu beat Taylor Fritz in the semis and then withstood 44 aces and saved four match points to beat John Isner 6-7(4) 7-6(3) 7-6(12) to become the first Chinese man in the Open Era to win an ATP title. Afterwards, he rose to a then career-high No. 58 before peaking at No. 54.
In the first set, Wong faced serious trouble trailing 3-2, 0-40 on his serve. However, he staved off three break points for a big hold to draw even at 3-3. At 4-4, Wu was the first to budge, as he committed a slew of forehand errors to yield the first service break. On set point in the following game, Wu hit a great approach out wide to Wong’s forehand as he came to the net, but the HK rep ripped a blinding crosscourt winner on the run to hold for 6-4.
Wong then broke for a 2-1 lead in the ensuing set, but Wu started to find his laser sharp groundstrokes, as he painted the lines with increasing regularity to win the next four games on the trot. Although Wong was able to end the skid with a solid hold for 5-3, it was not enough to stop the Chinese No. 2 from serving the set out the following game to take proceedings to a third set.
Wu broke Wong’s serve to love in the opening game of the third to lead 1-0. However, two backhand errors in the fourth game gave Wong the opening to break back for a 2-2 impasse. Wong threatened dangerously again in the sixth game and Wu was forced to save three break points before finally holding serve after five deuces for 3-3. Points won on first serve were much better in this set, as Wong held for 4-3 with a couple of well-placed aces. Wu then held easily for 4-4. Wong threw down a slider out wide on second serve for an ace to hold for 5-4. Wu was almost on the brink and had to dig deep to hold for 5-5 after he was just two points away from defeat at 30-30. Wong traded blows with Wu from deep and drilled a well-timed backhand down the line winner to hold for 6-5 before the No. 3 seed sent matters to a deciding tiebreak.
Wu, with a pair of mini-breaks in hand, sped to a lightning-quick 4-1 lead. He then held his next two serves to arrive at 6-1. After he belted another ace to make it 6-3, he produced a mini-break to get to 6-5. Then, on Wu’s second serve, Wong took the return on the rise with his backhand and came charging into the net. The HK rep was in stride, as he took Wu’s crosscourt backhand for a clean volley winner to the opposite side of the court to save the fourth match point, 6-5. That stunned the Chinese No. 2. A couple of errors later under pressure from Wu was all she wrote, as the teenager beat an ATP top 100 opponent for the first time in his career 6-4 3-6 7-6(6).
Opening day’s play saw Jack Wong serving for the first at 5-4 against 15th-seeded Indonesian No. 1 and 2023 South East Asian Games singles gold medalist, Rifqi Fitriadi, but lost serve and was pegged back to 5-5. However, Wong’s response was swift and after another long deuce broke his opponent again to arrive at 6-5, which he duly held for the set 7-5. In the second set, an intense break serve fest manifested with Jack breaking Fitriadi three times and yet the Indonesian returning the favour 4 times to win the 1 hour and 15 minutes second set 6-4. Unfortunately for Jack, cramps started to appear and got worse going forward. Although Jack was 0 for 1 on break points in the final set, he still dug deep to fight off 4 of 6 break points, but that was not nearly sufficient to stop Fitriadi getting the pair of crucial breaks to win it 6-2. Game, set, match Fitriadi in 3 hours and 18 minutes.
In the men’s doubles, Coleman Wong and Jack Wong were pitted against tricky Korean pair Hong Seongchan and Kwon Soonwoo. In the first set, Wong and Wong were quickly down double break 3-0 before breaking back to get on the board, 3-1. However, the Koreans conjured another last break to seal the first 6-2. In the second, it was an uphill battle, as break point opportunities were few and far between for the HK pair, and further breaks in the third and seventh games were enough to see the Koreans through in straight sets 6-2 6-2.
After picking up an easy opening win against Indonesia’s Beatrice Gumulya 6-2 6-0, Eudice Chong ran into an in-form No. 10 seed and WTA No. 290 Park Sohyun, who hardly missed all match and her flat shots on a slow court with a heavy ball made it a tough outing for the HK rep, as she went down in straight sets 6-3 6-3. Park has won three times on the ITF World Tennis Tour this season. Elsewhere, third seeded 2018 Asian Games bronze medalist, Ankita Raina of India, won 17 of 22 points off Adithya Karunaratne’s second serves and broke the HK rep five times today to come away with a 6-1 6-2 third round victory.
In women’s doubles first round, Thailand’s Anchisa Chanta and Punnin Kovapitukted limited Adithya Karunaratne and Tiffany Wu to just 3 of 11 points won on 2nd serve, as the HK pair conceded serve six times in a 6-4 6-0 defeat.
History
Tsui Yuen Yuen was a member of the Hong Kong team when tennis first became a medal sport at the 3rd Asian Games in Tokyo in 1958. Then, at the 4th Asian Games in Jakarta in 1962, she became the first tennis player from Hong Kong to medal when she partnered Ceylon’s Ranjani Jayasuriya to land a silver in women’s doubles after finishing runners-up 6-4 6-2 to an all-conquering Japanese duo of Akiko Fukui and Reiko Miyagi, who swept all golds before them that year. The Hong Kong-Ceylon pairing’s path to the final included a victory over the defending silver medallists Desideria Ampon and Patricia Yngayo of the Philippines, who went on to claim silver again at the 5th Asian Games in Bangkok in 1966.
At the Jakarta-Palembang Asian Games in 2018, Eudice Chong and Zhang Ling were the early talk of the quadrennial event when they eliminated No. 3 seed and Incheon 2014 silver medalist Luksika Kumkhum (WTA No. 91) in the second round and No. 4 seed Sabina Sharipova (WTA No. 125) in the third round respectively. However, they were one win away from a medal, as they were halted in the quarterfinals by Chinese Taipei No. 1 Liang En-Shuo and Indian No. 1 Ankita Raina respectively. In the mixed doubles, Brian Yeung and Zhang Ling caused another upset when they came from a set down to beat No. 3 seed Gong Mao-Xin and Yang Zhaoxuan of China 4-6 6-4 [10-7]. However, they also fell just shy of a medal when they fell to Thailand’s fifth-seeded Sonchat Ratiwatana and Luksika Kumkhum in the last eight.
Results
19th Asian Games Hangzhou
Hangzhou Olympic Tennis Centre
September 24-30, 2023
Men’s Singles
Second Round
(15)Rifqi Fitriadi (INA) d. Jack Wong (HKG) 5-7 6-4 6-2
(14)Coleman Wong (HKG) d. Abhishek Bastola (NEP) 6-2 6-0
Third Round
(14)Coleman Wong (HKG) d. (3)Wu Yibing (CHN) 6-4 3-6 7-6(6)
Quarterfinals
(8)Hong Seongchan (KOR) d. (14)Coleman Wong (HKG) 4-6 6-4 6-3
Women’s Singles
Second Round
(7)Eudice Chong d. Beatrice Gumulya (INA) 6-2 6-0
(14)Adithya Karunaratne (HKG) d. Iu Si Nong (MAC) 6-0 6-0
Third Round
(10)Park Sohyun (KOR) d. (7)Eudice Chong (HKG) 6-3 6-3
(3)Ankita Raina (IND) d. (14)Adithya Karunaratne (HKG) 6-1 6-2
Men’s Doubles
First Round
Hong Seongchan/Kwon Soonwoo (KOR) d. Coleman Wong/Jack Wong (HKG) 6-2 6-2
Women’s Doubles
First Round
Anchisa Chanta/Punnin Kovapitukted (THA) d. Adithya Karunaratne/Tiffany Wu (HKG) 6-4 6-0
Second Round
(5)Eudice Chong/Cody Wong (HKG) d. Rutuja Bhosale/Karman Thandi (IND) 6-4 6-1
Quarterfinals
(2)Latisha Chan/Angel Chan (TPE) d. (5)Eudice Chong/Cody Wong (HKG) 6-3 6-4
Mixed Doubles
Second Round
(4)Chung Yunseong/Han Na Lae (KOR) d. Jack Wong/Cody Wong (HKG) 6-2 6-1
(15)Coleman Wong/Eudice Chong d. Kyle Tang/Jamie Lau (MAC) 6-3 6-0
Third Round
(3)Hsu Yu Hsiou/Angel Chan (TPE) d. (15)Coleman Wong/Eudice Chong 6-3 6-4