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Sinclair stuns China’s two-time champion
The CNMI’s Colin Sinclair is in the quarterfinals of the Australian Open 2019 Asia-Pacific Wildcard Play-off. (Tennis Australia)
Colin Sinclair earned the biggest win in the opening day of the Australian Open 2019 Asia-Pacific Wildcard Play-off after pulling off an upset over China’s two-time champion Di Wu.
The CNMI player swept the No. 8 seed Wu, 6-2, 6-3, last Wednesday in Zhuhai, China to advance to the quarterfinals and boost his bid for a slot in the Grand Slam tournament. Sinclair, according to the tournament website, used his big serves to stun the hometown bet. The website added that it was Sinclair’s former coach, Northern Mariana Islands Tennis Association’s Jeff Race, who made it possible for the former CNMI junior player to get a wild card from Tennis Australia and moved closer to his dream of seeing action in the Australian Open.
“To play a Grand Slam would be huge. I grew up and played in Brisbane since I was 10, and I have a home there, so I’d love to play in the Australian Open,” Sinclair was quoted as saying in the event website.
Up next for the world No. 495 is 2015 winner and No. 2 seed Ze Zchang, also from China. Zhang advanced to the Round of 8 following a straight set win over India’s Sidharth Rawat, 6-4 6-2. Joining Sinclair and Zhang in the quarterfinals were Japan’s Kaichi Uchida and Chinese-Taipei’s Yu Hsiou Hsu, who eliminated Tung-Lin Wu, 7-6(4), 5-7, 7-6(6) and Tsung Hua Yang, 6-3, 6-1, respectively.
Four more quarterfinals berths are left and they will be disputed by No. 1 seed Duckhee Lee and No. 5 Yunseong Chung of South Korea, No. 3 Li Zhe of China, No. 6 Renta Tokuda of Japan, and the unranked Hayi Liu, Jie Cui, and Ridele Te of China, and India’s Arjun Kadhe.
Meanwhile, Sinclair also played in the doubles, but he and Hong Kong’s Pak Long Yeung were defeated by Chinese-Taipei’s Hsien-Yin Peng and Jimmy Wang, 6-2, 6-3.
