US OPEN

August 31, 2022

Wu Yibing

Press Conference

W. YIBING/N. Borges

6-7, 7-6, 4-6, 6-4, 6-4

THE MODERATOR: Can you give us your thoughts on your match and victory.

WU YIBING: Okay. This is my first Grand Slam second round. It was great for myself that I could maintain my level until the fifth set.

It's tough because I guess I only played once in my life a five-set match. This is my second time in my life. I'm happy for myself.

I think there's more to come. I feel like I have this level to play here in the Grand Slam. Hopefully I keep health, keep playing more Grand Slams.

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. It's not just your first time, you're the first Chinese man to ever do something like this. My colleagues in Shanghai messaged to say you are the hot trending topic in China on WeChat, Weibo. What does that mean to you?

WU YIBING: I'm a good-looking guy, I guess (laughter).

Yeah, I don't know. It's tough question to answer. But I think if there is a first time, there is going to be a second time, a third time. I'm happy that I'm the first guy to make it the history.

But the more important is this bring the hope to all the Chinese fans and the kids so we can have more great players in our country, which I think we should have long time ago, yeah.

Q. How different does this feel to a few years ago with the juniors?

WU YIBING: I guess just the same press room, yeah.

It's good memory, though. I'm more happy this time 'cause this is the real tennis world. This is what all the juniors want to be. When you win juniors here, you want to play the men's here. I'm glad I'm still in the draw, which is almost the second week, yeah. It's not bad.

Q. You almost didn't play at all between 2019 and '21. Was that injuries or something else?

WU YIBING: No, I wouldn't say it's injuries. Just some parts of my body hurting. Actually because the COVID, we couldn't travel around the world. We have our own tournaments in China.

It's great that the player from China, we can compete with each other and just keep each other, like, playing matches. I just didn't have a chance to really go out the country and play the big tournaments, any futures, challengers.

I didn't stop play tennis. It's just not as high level as here, yeah.

Q. You were telling a story the other day when you were little, on the badminton court, then the tennis court. At what point did you realize you had a talent for tennis? When did that switch to taking it seriously?

WU YIBING: I would say when I'm 16. I start play some ITF juniors that I start winning on the international stuff, not only like national stuff.

When I'm like 10 or 12 years old, all the coaches, they were talking with my parents that this kid has a talent. I mean, I don't really know what's in me. I don't know what they meant.

Whenever I play international, I feel, Oh, this is something I'm good at, not only in our country, but in the international-wise.

Then the junior US Open champion really give me that confidence so I can play tennis on the men's world also. Got unlucky, got hurt a little bit.

I happy I still playing tennis and enjoy tennis. I think this is really good I can keep my - how you say - passions for tennis even though I was hurting bad. I think this not easy to do. But I'm glad I make it.

Q. You wanted to be the high-ranked Chinese man in history. You are now going to do that. What does that mean to you?

WU YIBING: I mean, ranking-wise I didn't think that much. I just want to enjoy every match I play whenever I'm on the court. I won't start thinking about rankings, I will think what I do. Ranking is just a thing, if you're playing good, the points and even the money, it's going to come.

I'm not worry about that, yeah.

Q. How did you come into tennis? Was it a family thing?

WU YIBING: No. My family, my father was a boxer, but my mom, she's not sports related. But she love to watch. Even my grandparents, they watch all of my match. I just start tennis when I'm little.

Q. How are you able to keep all this in good perspective?

WU YIBING: I just didn't think this is like a big (indiscernible) to me because the tournament is still going on. There's no time for celebrate yet. I have a tough opponent next round. That's my mindset. I'm here to play the tournament. When the tournament finishes, we do parties, but not during the tournament, yeah.