Wu Yibing Takes It To Federer In London

Wu Yibing

The future of Chinese tennis has never looked brighter than in 2017, when 18-year-old Wu Yibing burst onto the ATP World Tour. Wu became the fourth player in the past five years to win a junior Grand Slam title and an ATP Challenger Tour crown in the same season after his triumph at the US Open and the Shanghai Challenger event, which earned him a wild card into the Shanghai Rolex Masters. 

This week, the Chinese teenager and fellow 18-year-old, Miomir Kecmanovic of Serbia, were hitting partners for some of the ATP World Tour’s biggest names at the Nitto ATP Finals in London. Both are former junior No. 1s and claimed their first ATP Challenger Tour titles in recent months – Wu in Shanghai and Kecmanovic in Suzhou, China. Wu spoke to atpworldtour.com.

How do you feel to come to the Nitto ATP Finals as a hitting partner?
It’s my pleasure to be invited to London. I know Stefanos Tsitsipas was in this position last year. Obviously, he absorbed lots of good things from London and made it into his own. He made the breakthrough this year and found his place in the Top 100. I am hoping that I can do the same thing – learn as much as I can from this week from the best players in the world and show that in my play.

What is it like to practise with Dominic Thiem and Grigor Dimitrov?
Thiem is the first player I hit with this year. He is a really powerful groundstroke-hitter. I can feel his ball was very heavy with lots of spin. He always prefers long rallies, so practice with him is more physically demanding. As for Dimitrov, he usually prefers to focus on certain skills. For example, he will put lots of time into just practising his serve or volley. His hitting is really quick and more accurate  Both players are very nice and easy going guys. I enjoyed and learnt a lot from them. 

How about hitting with Roger Federer?
We practised twice this week. The first time we practised on centre court of The O2. I was very nervous before I got on court, but he is so friendly and it made me feel much better. We only practised 30 minutes this time. The next day  we had another practice section at the Queen’s Club. This one lasted one hour. Roger’s control of the ball was the best I have ever seen. He can play a drop shot or he can hit the ball hard and flat and you can’t predict in advance. Practising with Roger, you know he is really in good form, but I think I did a great job. I am so grateful for this opportunity.              

During the break, Roger shared a story with me about his close friend Marco Chiudinelli who recently retired. They used to practise together when they were just teenagers. They loved to have a small competition to make the practice more fun. So there is one about serve and return. They both got to serve to the other by standing on the serve’s line. If one of them made one return, it would give them a huge advantage to win the competition. He was really enjoying [telling the story] and I couldn’t stop laughing. I guess he probably was thinking about those old days with his close friend. 

What do you want to learn from Roger?
Roger is a very nice and easy-going guy, but at the same time, you can feel his confidence in tennis and maybe with everything. Roger is my second favourite player. I really hope I can be a nice and confident guy like him one day. If I can have one of his techniques, I would want to have the volley skills like him.

If you got a chance to play a match with one of the eight players in London, who would that be?
Definitely Roger. After practising with him, I actually talked to my physical trainer and asked if Roger played like this in a tour match against me, whether I might have a chance. Of course I know he is way better than what he shows at training. That’s why I want to play him, see how big the gap between us really is. 

What is the most unfortunate part of this trip?
I was hoping that I might have a chance to hit with Andy Murray because he is my favourite player. I love everything about him. It’s a shame that it did not happen, but I did run into him during this trip. It was a bit awkward as I just get out from the toilet at the gym centre as he was about to get in. He said hi to me but I was completely frozen.  Andy and I both had a training session to finish that day in the gym and even though I really wanted to have a picture with him, I thought maybe it’s best to leave him alone since he is so focused on the training. 

What is your schedule after London?
I will go back to Hangzhou and prepare for the Australian Open Wild Card tournament, which will be held in Zhuhai. After this tournament, I will go to Monaco because Dimitrov invited me to go there to train with him. I will be spending more than 10 days with him there. After Monaco, I will go to Barcelona and train with Albert Ramos-Vinolas for the rest of December. My first tournament for 2018 is a Challenger event in Thailand.

What will you focus on during the December training?
Mostly physical as 2018 will be my first full year after I turned pro. I will need to have my body ready for the tough schedule and avoid injuries. Besides, I would love to improve my serve, return and volley.

On a scale of 1 to 10, what do you expect for 2018?
A 10, especially for those two December training blocks. That could be the best thing ever to happen to my tennis career. I just want to enjoy those times with Dimitrov and Ramos-Vinolas, learn as much as I can and get myself prepared for 2018.