ATP Tour

'No shortcut' for Wu Yibing, who will try to upset Alcaraz at the US Open

Wu Yibing sat in a cubicle inside the US Open media centre Wednesday evening and just a metre away, Carlos Alcaraz played Jaime Faria on television. The Chinese star glanced very briefly, understanding that he could face the defending champion, Alcaraz, next.

“I feel weird. We don’t talk about this. The team always says focus on the person this match,” Wu, who fell to Alcaraz two years ago in Shanghai, told ATPTour.com. “But once you win, you're going to know who you play next.”

Alcaraz was locked in an early battle with Faria, having split the first two sets at the time. Would Wu be tuning into the match for early scouting?

“I'm not going to watch anything tonight. I’ll watch some highlights tomorrow. That’s how I prepare most of the matches,” Wu said before cracking a laugh. “I tried to watch some matches on the hotel TV, but I couldn't find the channel!”

The 26-year-old enjoys spending time in New York and had simple plans for his off day Thursday: Walk around the city in good weather or play PlayStation if there was bad weather.

“Always with me,” Wu said of his video game console with a smile.

There are plenty of reasons to smile these days for the former No. 54 player in the PIF ATP Rankings, who as recently as June last year was outside the world’s Top 400 after struggling with multiple injuries.

“I feel great. After a couple years, managed to play again in the third round. Of course, I feel great,” said Wu, who three years ago in Dallas became the first Chinese ATP Tour titlist in history. “I guess I just have this routine of doing what's the right thing for me every day, and there's no shortcut. Sometimes it will pay off on court, sometimes it doesn't. But the key is to keep working, keep trusting myself, keep believing.”

Wu, who has defeated Adam Walton and James Duckworth in New York, explained that many athletes deal with different injuries and need to take time off.

“I really made a lot of comebacks in my career already,” Wu said. “Multiple surgeries on different body parts and mentally I am heading there. Still, I’ve got people that I trust around me. So I can’t do any of this without the right people’s help. Just glad to be able to compete again in a big tournament, high level.”

The good news is that Wu has been healthy during the 2026 season. The US Open is his 21st event of the year. With his consistent play, the right-handed player has surged to No. 98 in the PIF ATP Live Rankings.

“I would say it's the most tournaments I’ve played in my career in one year. It might be too much for me because I'm not used to playing more than 20 tournaments a year. It has to be normal, but in the clay-court season and the grass season, I was kind of a little bit burned out,” Wu said. “Three months in Europe, which is tournament by tournament, I played almost every week. Great experience, but mentally it was not easy for me to handle because normally — my normally — it would be like one or two tournaments, I take, I don't know, four weeks off because some body parts are still hurting. But so far I'm doing really good this year.”

A highlight of the season came at Wimbledon, where Wu faced 24-time major champion Novak Djokovic in the first round. Djokovic won in four sets, but it was a moment to remember.

“It was a once-in-my-life experience, I guess, to be able to play Novak on Centre Court,” Wu said. “I gave my everything. I had my chances, but it’s Novak.”

Fittingly, Wu trained with Djokovic when he was an 18-year-old in December 2017. Dani Vallverdu was coaching Grigor Dimitrov at the time and invited him to Monte-Carlo, where the Chinese standout, who had reached junior World No. 1 three months earlier, trained with the Bulgarian and Djokovic.

“[It was] a great experience for me as a junior player, an unbelievable experience,” Wu said. “And the [ATP] also invited me to the Nitto ATP Finals in London. I was hitting with Thiem, with Roger too. As a junior, that's all you can ask for, I guess.”

That same year, Wu won the US Open boys’ singles title. And four years after qualifying and becoming the first Chinese man to reach the third round of the US Open, he is attempting to go one step further at Flushing Meadows.

“I thought I'm going to be more excited, but it seems it just happened,” Wu said. “It's not the time to celebrate yet because I haven't got to the second week of any Grand Slam yet, so here could be my chance.”