If there’s one thing that Juncheng Shang, a rising star in professional tennis, has learned in his two seasons is getting off to a good start in tournaments.
He did just that on Monday afternoon with a 6-2, 6-1 win over Francisco Comesana in a first-round match. There’s been some traction in his game this season for the 19-year-old from China and with that comes more notoriety.
But he’s fine with that.
“I think it’s positive that people are saying I’m young, and I have a lot of potential,” Shang said. “I’m still improving, and that’s a positive thing. I take it as no pressure, and I’m enjoying the tour.”
Shang, who is ranked No. 73 and is left-handed, said it took him awhile to get use to his surroundings, but he needed just a little more than an hour to win his match.
“The conditions are a bit different than when I was practicing last week,” Shang said. “I feel like the courts are a bit slow, but they bounce a lot and it’s good to get use to the courts heading into the U.S. Open (next week).”
The defending champions in doubles - Nathaniel Lammons and Jackson Withrow of the United States – have come back to Winston-Salem for more.
The duo opened defense of their title they won last year by beating beat Nuno Borges and Luciana Darderi 6-1, 6-7 (4) 10-7 in a round of 16 match on Monday afternoon.
Lammons and Withrow, who are seeded fourth, advance to the quarterfinals.
“I think in the second set our opponents made some adjustments to where they were serving and where they were covering, and I think we did a good job in the first of capitalizing when we hit good returns,” Lammons said.
Borges and Darderi focus on their singles game, both ranked inside the top 40, but teamed up for this tournament.
After dropping the first set the current Atlanta Open and Citi Open champs came roaring back to win the second set in a tiebreaker.
“They came up with some shots (in the second set) to make it interesting,” Lammons said.
He admitted playing doubles against singles specialists requires a different strategy.
“Against singles guys the game plan is simple but not always easy,” Lammons said. “When you play singles’ boys most of the time the service guy doesn’t take as many balls…. It’s not always easy to do.”
The advantage Lammons and Withrow have is they’ve played against primarily singles players in recent tournaments.
“The last couple of weeks we’ve lost to some singles players so it’s nice to get a W today,” Lammons said.
Lammons likes the way he and Withrow are on the same page in terms of strategy and type of game they each play.
“I think both Jackson and I serve pretty aggressively and play pretty aggressively in general,” Lammons said. “That suits us when it gets hot.”
Lammons, who is from Arlington, Texas, and Withrow, who is from Omaha, love the vibe around the Winston-Salem Open.
“I think for us the way Jackson and I answer that question is even though its Winston-Salem, while it’s actually far from where we live, feels like home,” Lammons said.
As they try to defend their title it’s not hard for Lammons to describe why they like it here.
“It’s kind of cool playing on a college campus and reminiscing of our tennis days,” he added
“We’ve been here a few years now and there’s a comfort level for sure.”
In continued first-round singles play it was Alexandre Muller beating Constant Lestienne 6-3, 6-2 in the afternoon on Monday.
Dominic Stricker clinched the second round dismissing Federico Coria 7-5, 6-2 in another first-round match.
In one of the first upsets of the week qualifying lucky loser 21-year-old Zachary Svajda beat Laslo Djere 6-4, 6-1. Djere made it into the quarterfinals in last year’s Winston-Salem Open and the final in 2022.
Match play continues with two former champions in action – Pablo Carreño Busta (2016) and Adrian Mannarino (2022).
