Fast-learner Zhou reaping rewards after trading badminton for tennis
It was a day when the big guns moved forward with purpose into the last eight of the Australian Open Junior Championships.
Embracing the sunny, fresh weather after the previous day’s washout, second Iliyan Radulov took just 71 minutes to see off Estonian Oliver Ojakaar in straight sets. There were also quick wins for third seed Alexander Blockx and Brazil’s Joao Fonseca, who will play each other next.
Top seed Kilian Feldbausch however took two hours and 43 minutes to overcome American Kyle Kang in three sets and now faces eleventh seed Yi Zhou in what promises to be a match of the big hitters.
Feldbausch has been imperious in Melbourne this week but should he have glimpsed any of Zhou’s 55-minute win over eight-seed Cooper Williams today, he will be seriously concerned.
Rallies were few and far between on court 16, where Zhou not only out-blasted Williams but thought his way to victory with a series of heavy top spin serves which the American found impossible to deal with.
“He has a good return on him so I hit it that way today. I can hit flat serves and slice,” said Zhou, who it transpires is also the most engaging of 17-year-olds.
A first-round loss in the junior Traralgon tournament last week has not dented his confidence.
“I definitely want to win this tournament. I feel I have a good chance to win,” said the tall youngster who, while he admits to nerves, comes with a stylish all court game, an attribute at the fore of his heroes.
“I used to like Federer, now it’s Tsitsipas and Alcaraz,” he said.
Zhou’s back story is as intriguing as his rising prominence. From Beijing, where he still lives, he didn’t even pick up a tennis racket until he was 10-years-old.
“I played badminton until I was 10,” he said. His uncle (“a crazy, big tennis fan”) urged him to take up the sport.
“I was quite bad when I started playing tennis and lost my first tournament badly but it was fun and it went from there. I had a go at badminton again later, I wasn’t as good as before.”
Last year was a breakthrough as Zhou travelled for about eight months to move his ranking forward. He visited Japan, Europe and Africa, and found the USA to be a revelation, particularly a small junior tournament in Huntstville - in America’s deep south - which he enjoyed immensely.
“They are very enthusiastic there, there was lots of loud music at the tournament. We don’t have that in China,” he said.
He will have felt at ease in America given his fluent English, despite only beginning to learn a second language seven years ago.
“People talk to me as if I live in the USA but I have only been there twice. I just learned English in China, reading books with my mum,” said Zhou.