The beauty of professional sport is that talk can always turn towards the game’s brightest young talents and in Coleman Wong, a star might have been born.
Who, we hear you ask at the back?
Wong came into the Miami Open as an unknown quantity. However, after his stunning victory over the world number 14 Ben Shelton, it would appear that tennis is alive and kicking in Hong Kong.
Shelton is waiting for a serious breakthrough to a certain extent and after losing in the quarter-finals of Indian Wells, he’d have hoped to run deep in Miami over the next week.
However, Wong claimed a two sets to one victory winning 7-6, 2-6, 7-6 to set up a date with Australian player Adam Walton in the last 32.
The ATP Tour is exciting at the moment and it does appear that some of the game’s biggest talents can be gazumped on any given day if they don’t rock up and produce their best tennis.
What Ben Shelton said to Coleman Wong after losing to him
This was a win that should do a lot for the Hong Kong native’s confidence as he looks to make waves on the ATP Tour.
Walton throws him up another chance to claim a scalp too with the world number 89 likely to view a meeting with Wong in exactly the same fashion.
There was a very warm exchange between Wong and Shelton at the net after the 20-year-old defeated the United States star and he’s now shared what was said.
Wong told The Tennis Channel: “Yeah I literally just watched him yesterday, every day he’s on Instagram, the socials, I want to be like him, he’s cool, he’s got his own style but have got mine too, he just said, yeah, really great match and I just said it was a really tough match.”
Coleman Wong stats vs Ben Shelton
This quite clearly wasn’t a fluke and Wong will now be hoping for more big performances as he looks to establish himself as a professional player.
Wong has been getting wildcards to enter qualifiers for these types of events but given his ranking of 182, he was given one for the main draw by IMG at the Miami Open.
| Coleman Wong stats vs Ben Shelton in Miami Open win | Total |
| Aces | 8 |
| First Serve | 66% |
| Break Points | 1/3 |
| Points Won | 98 |
| Games Won | 16 |
| Service Points Won | 70 |
That certainly helps and clearly some of these young players from the challenger circuit simply need opportunities to play the top players.
Wong has never qualified for any of the Grand Slam events and doing well at this tournament should give him the confidence to set new milestones for himself going forward.
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