HONG KONG, January 9, 2026 (Media Release)
Coleman Wong Chak-lam’s fairytale run at the Bank of China Hong Kong Tennis Open (‘BOCHKTO’) ended today following a 6-4, 6-4 defeat by top seed Lorenzo Musetti.
The 21-year-old matched Musetti shot for shot at the start of the match but eventually gave away a break to lose a tightly contested first set. Wong led by a break in the second but was caught quickly, and was broken again at 4-4 for Musetti to serve out a love game to advance to the semifinals.
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The Hong Kong, China no. 1 had a tremendous 2025 season, scoring a win over top 10 player Ben Shelton in Miami and reached the third round at the US Open before succumbing to Andrey Rublev. This was Wong’s first ATP Tour quarterfinal and the Hongkonger hopes to continue breaking new grounds, and making history for Hong Kong tennis.
He said: “This was my first quarterfinal at an ATP Tour event. Playing Lorenzo Musetti in the quarterfinals at home, I cannot ask for more than that. I learned a lot from today, and just need to keep going. I am moving in the right direction, and will move closer and closer towards my goals.
“I am pretty happy with my performance today. He plays unbelievable defence. I think the difference is the experience of playing big matches. I need to play more of these players, learn how they stay so calm, and how in critical moments, they handle problems the way they do.
“I felt I wasn’t alone on the court today. I had so much support, and I felt the fans with me, battling Musetti together. I head off to Australia and I hope Chinese fans there can also support me. I feel I belong in top flight professional men’s tennis, and I want to keep improving, keeping narrowing the gap between myself and the top players in the world.”
Third seed Andrey Rublev eased past Portuguese no. 1 Nuno Borges 6-3, 6-4. The world no. 16 started much better than he did against 15th National Games Men’s Singles Champion Wu Yibing, and quickly got into his stride. Borges struggled against Rublev’s weight and accuracy of shot, and went down in one-hour-and-13-minutes. Rublev will play Musetti next on Centre Court at 3:30pm tomorrow for a place in the final.
In the bottom half of the draw, Jerry Shang Juncheng failed to make his third successive semifinal at BOCHKTO. No. 2 seed Alexander Bublik simply had too much game to be troubled by the 20-year-old, coming through 6-1, 7-6(2). The Kazakhstani world no. 11 had won the first five games before Shang got one on the scoreboard. The second set was a much tighter affair but Bublik ran away with tie-break to claim his place in the semifinals.
The world no. 11 Bublik was full of praise for Shang. He commented:
“I played well, I played solid. I was playing a guy I know well and respect a lot. A few points decided the second set, and I was happy to be able to complete the job in two sets. Jerry has definitely improved a lot since we played at the US Open 2024. He got a little unlucky after that, but he definitely has the potential. He was a top 50 player, but has the potential for top 20 or top 10. He can get there if he stays healthy.”
Bublik will take on Marcos Giron in the semifinals, who ended the giant killing run of Michael Mmoh. The qualifier retired from the match at 3-6, 0-1.
Wong and his partner Gabriel Diallo were due to face Italian duo Musetti and Lorenzeo Sonego in the semifinals of the doubles tomorrow, but due to injury sustained in that match, Diallo has withdrawn from the ATP 250 event, giving their opponents a walkover into the final on Sunday.
The other doubles semifinal will see Andrey Rublev and Karen Khachanov take on Vasil Kirkov and Bart Stevens no earlier than 5pm on Court One.
