#NextGenATP Shang downs Musetti, wins maiden ATP Tour title in Chengdu

p If a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.atptour.com/en/players/juncheng-shang/s0re/overview" target="_blank"Shang Juncheng/a was feeling the weight of home expectation on Tuesday at the a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/chengdu/7581/overview'Chengdu Open/a, the 19-year-old certainly did not show it. /p

p The #NextGenATP star produced a stunning championship-match performance to overwhelm top seed a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/lorenzo-musetti/m0ej/overview'Lorenzo Musetti/a and lift his maiden ATP Tour title at the hard-court ATP 250. Shang prevailed 7-6(4), 6-1 after 99 minutes to become the first Chinese player to win an ATP Tour title on home soil. /p

p "It's really, really special for me," said Shang. "Especially to do it at home. It’s been tough matches this week. I’ve played really good tennis, kept calm, and overall I’m just very happy to be here in Chengdu.” /p

blockquote class="twitter-tweet"

p lang="en" dir="ltr"First time feeling at home ????????????br /

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Shang becomes the first player born in 2005 or later to win an ATP Tour title after taking down Musetti 7-6(4) 6-1!a href="https://twitter.com/ChengduOpen?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"@ChengduOpen/a | a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ChengduOpen?src=hashamp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"#ChengduOpen/a a href="https://t.co/9w8t4Alnlp"pic.twitter.com/9w8t4Alnlp/a/p

mdash; ATP Tour (@atptour) a href="https://twitter.com/atptour/status/1838561361673986455?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"September 24, 2024/a/blockquote

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p By lifting the trophy on his event debut in Chengdu, Shang became just the second Chinese man to win an ATP Tour singles title after a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.atptour.com/en/players/yibing-wu/wb32/overview" target="_blank"Wu Yibing/a triumphed in Dallas in 2023. a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.atptour.com/en/players/zhizhen-zhang/z371/overview" target="_blank"Zhang Zhizhen/a could become the third player on that list later on Tuesday if he can defeat a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/marin-cilic/c977/overview'Marin Cilic/a in the final at the a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/hangzhou/4713/overview'Hangzhou Open/a. /p

p The key to Shang’s victory against Musetti was how quickly he recovered from the disappointment of being broken when serving for the first set at 6-5. He held firm in the subsequent tie-break to move ahead and then unleashed a series of stunning winners across the second set to accelerate to an ultimately commanding victory. /p

p Shang finished the match having converted three of five break points he earned, according to Infosys ATP Stats. His victory was greeted with ecstasy by the crowd, who roared the home favourite on throughout his maiden Lexus ATP Head2Head clash with Musetti. /p

p/p

p “I think the first set was great,” said Shang. “Amazing tennis from both of us. I was kind of struggling physically, to be honest. Really long rallies, and he played some good points. I was serving for the set and got a little bit tight, and he took the chance./p

p “In the tie-break, I think I just kept my cool and was really calm, listening to my coach. Trying to fix the serve, fix the forehand a little bit. I’m glad it worked out and the second set was a little bit smoother.”/p

p Shang has also boosted his bid to qualify for the a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/next-gen-atp-finals/7696/overview'Next Gen ATP Finals presented by PIF/a for the first time with his title run on home soil. The Chinese lefty has leapfrogged a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/alex-michelsen/m0qi/overview'Alex Michelsen/a into second in the PIF ATP Live Race To Jeddah. /p

p [NEWSLETTER FORM] /p