Huang Zelin won the gold medal in men's singles tennis at the Nagoya Asian Games, creating a new page in Hong Kong's 68-year history

Huang Zelin. (Reuters)

[Reporter Liang Weiming/Comprehensive Report] In the men's singles tennis championship match of the Nagoya Asian Games, Hong Kong's No. 1 brother Huang Zelin was full of firepower. He once again defeated his Chinese rival Wu Yibing 6:2, 6:4. Not only did he win Hong Kong's first Asian Games tennis gold medal in 68 years, he also won a ticket to the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics in advance.

"Winning now doesn't mean I have to stop. I feel it will never be enough. There are 99 players ahead of me. Keep going! See you in the Olympics in two years!" Huang Zelin is only 22 years old and has a good figure of 191 centimeters. In the last Hangzhou Asian Games, he was a strong 16th place player against Wu Yibing, but he missed the top 8. He made a comeback this year and beat Wu Yibing again in a fierce battle for 1 hour and 33 minutes at the Dongshan Park Tennis Center. He won Hong Kong's first gold medal in 68 years since tennis was included in the Asian Games in 1958. He also secured a seat at the Los Angeles Hall of Fame the following year. The men's and women's tennis singles champions of this Asian Games can directly enter the Olympics, provided that they must remain in the top 500 in the world rankings on June 12, 2028.

This week, Huang Zelin, ranked 100th in the ATP World Men's Singles Ranking, met Wu Yibing, who is 4 years older, 4 times, with 3 wins and 1 loss. He came back to win in 3 sets at the 2023 Hangzhou Asian Games, and the following year Wu Yibing retired due to injury in the Hangzhou Professional Tour and won again. Although Wu Yibing came back from the top four of the China National Games last year, he now lost to Huang Zelin in Nagoya and finished in the men's singles silver medal for the second time after the 2018 Jakarta Asian Games.