Third Prince Cup》Asian Games gold medal Huang Zelin failed to shoot the sun, and the dark horse in the side competition unexpectedly competed for the championship

Watanuki Yosuke. (Provided by the Network Association)

[Reporter Liang Weiming/Reporting from Taipei] The 2026 Taiwanese Third Prince International Men's Tennis Challenge was a big upset. Nagoya Asian Games gold medalist and Hong Kong's top seed Huang Zelin went through two consecutive sets of fierce battles and lost 6:7 (5:7), 6:7 (6:8) to the Japanese dark horse Yosuke Watanuki who entered the tournament. He was stopped in the top four and missed the championship.

Yosuke Watanuki won the silver medal at the 2023 Hangzhou Asian Games, but his world ranking has recently dropped to 375. The Three Prince Cup had to start from the out-of-conference matches. As a result, the 28-year-old made it all the way. In this game, he blocked the heavy attack of the 22-year-old "Hong Kong's No. 1 Brother". Not only did he repay the revenge of losing in the top 16 of the Nagoya Asian Games, he also created a dark horse legend of 6 consecutive wins since the out-of-conference matches. "It really relied on a little bit of luck, and the scores were very close throughout the game." Yosuke Watanuki returned to the finals in nearly a year after winning the title at the Kobe Challenger in November last year. He made a miraculous comeback from 3:6 with a 7-7 in the second set, which made him even more happy: "Honestly, it's crazy. If you asked me if I could do it again, I would probably say no. This is really super lucky!"

Please read on...

On Sunday at 2:30 pm, Yosuke Watanuki will face off against the 198-centimeter-tall Jan Kumstat on the indoor hard court of the Taipei Tennis Center. This 19-year-old Czech star won three consecutive challenge championships in Liberec, Hamburg, and Prague in August this year.