Hong Kong Tennis Open winner tells city’s No 1 Coleman Wong where to focus for success
Dutchman Sander Arends combined with Luke Johnson to beat Andrey Rublev and Karen Khachanov for Hong Kong Open doubles glory
The new Bank of China Hong Kong Tennis Open doubles champion, Sander Arends, has advised Hong Kong No 1 Coleman Wong Chak-lam to stay focused on his singles career.
Last year, Wong, the world No 170, reached two finals and four semi-finals on the second-tier ATP Challenger Tour. He was beaten in the first round of last week’s Hong Kong Open and is now in Melbourne to try to qualify for this month’s Australian Open.
As a junior, however, Wong’s greatest successes came in the team format, where he won grand slam titles at the US Open and Australian Open, in 2021 and 2022, respectively.
Dutchman Arends, who partnered Luke Johnson to a three-set victory over fans’ favourites Andrey Rublev and Karen Khachanov in Sunday’s Hong Kong final, said that Wong should “focus on being a better tennis player, which means playing as much singles as possible”.
“It is easier to improve playing singles,” Arends added. “You hit more balls, spend more time on court and move way more than in doubles.
“Doubles is reaction stuff, sometimes you have to stretch, but singles is completely different and it is the main game of tennis.
