Jason Jung may have grown up in California, but he’s been excelling in China on the ATP Challenger Tour.
The 27 year old, who now plays for Taiwan, has posted an 11-15 record this year in Challenger events outside of China, but is now 14-2 at events within the country. He won his first Challenger title last month at the $125,000 event in Qingdao, helping push his Emirates ATP Ranking to a career high of No. 158.
Jung will reach a new career high Emirates ATP Ranking after his performance at the $50,000 Challenger in Shanghai. Coming in as the No. 6 seed, he upset top seed Jordan Thompson in the semi-finals on Saturday, 6-4, 6-4. He’ll play a rain-delayed final on Monday against No. 3 seed Henri Laaksonen of Switzerland.
“Most of my best results are in China and there are so many Challenger tournaments here, so it’s really good for me,” said Jung. “Especially in Qingdao, there were so many fans who supported me so much during the week. I like to have them get involved and could really feel that they were with me.”
His breakthrough year is particularly noteworthy because pro tennis wasn’t even in the cards for Jung when he graduated from the University of Michigan. He took a job at an oil company back home in Torrance, California, but found himself laid off after three months and unsure about what path to take.
“My friend suggested I play a big money tournament in Seattle. I had not picked up a tennis racquet since I finished at Michigan. But I went there and tuned everyone up,” wrote Jung in his ATP Challenger Chronicle blog last month. “I surprised myself. After that tournament, I decided I would make a run at the professional circuit.”
Slowly but surely, Jung has continued to climb up the Emirates ATP Rankings over the past five years. Now that he’s consistently making deep runs in ATP Challenger Tour events, he has even bigger goals in store for next year.
“My serve and my movement have gotten a lot better this year. I have a friend on my team who gave me some advice in those areas and it helped a lot,” said Jung. “I want to make it the Top 100 by the end of the year, but think I just need to continue to play like I have been.”
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