Sixteen-year-old Shang wins second ITF men's title

Sixteen-year-old Juncheng Shang has been turning heads in junior competition on the ITF World Tennis Tour for some time.

Now, the reigning junior world No. 1 is starting to achieve the same in men’s competition.

Shang won his first ITF men’s singles title - a key milestone in the transition of any young player to the professional ranks - at M15 Fayetteville at the end of September and he followed up almost immediately with his second professional title this weekend with victory at M15 Naples, Florida.

The Chinese teenager, who trains at the IMG Academy in Bradenton and is known as Jerry to his English-speaking friends, is the youngest player to win a men’s singles title on the ITF World Tennis Tour title since Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz and Italian Luca Nardi triumphed at ITF events while still only 16 early last year.

Shang, whose maiden pro title came in a 6-3 6-0 hard court victory over Britain’s Mark Whitehouse on 26 September ahead of his 6-3 7-6(3) victory over Duarte Vale of Portugal in a clay court title decider on Sunday, has now won two of the five men’s events he has contested at ITF level to date.

There was also success for another promising young player over the weekend, with former junior world No. 6 Jack Pinnington Jones claiming his first ITF singles title in Turkey.

The 18-year-old Brit, a four-time titlist on the junior tour and 2021 Wimbledon quarter-finalist, defeated Russian Savva Polukhin 6-7(1) 6-4 6-2 to win the title at M15 Antalya.

Elsewhere on the ITF World Tennis Tour last week, there were wins at M25 level for Frenchman Antonie Escoffier at M25+H Rodez, Brazilian Gilbert Klier Junior at M25 Lima and Japan's Kaichi Uchida at M25 Loule.

At M15 level, Marek Gengel, Yan Bondarevskiy, Alec Deckers, Carlos Sanchez Jover, Bogdan Bobrov, Mateo Nicolas Martinez and Giles Hussey also collected titles. 

Men's ITF World Tennis Tour action continues this week with 11 tournaments, including four at M25 level. Follow the latest scores here.