Third Prince Cup" The dark horse legend in the side competition! Yosuke Watanuki sets record with 7 consecutive wins

Watanuki Yosuke and his newlywed wife. (Provided by the Network Association)

[Reporter Liang Weiming/Reporting from Taipei] The 2026 Taiwan Chinese Third Prince International Men's Tennis Challenge has come to an end. Japan's dark horse Yosuke Watanuki, who advanced from the qualifying tournament, continued his efforts. After an hour and 33 minutes of service battle, he finally defeated Czech 19-year-old super star Jan Kumshtat (Jan) 7:6 (7:2), 7:5. Kumstat), won a total of 7 games in a row, and also created the legend of being the first to win the Third Prince Cup out-of-conference tournament.

Facing Kumshtat, who is 198 centimeters tall and has won three consecutive Challenger Championships in August this year, the 28-year-old Yosuke Watanuki continued his upset momentum this week. He fired 13 aces and scored 79% of the points on the first serve. He scored 2 straight points on the hard court indoors at the Kitai City Tennis Center and won the championship again since the Kobe Challenger in November last year. It was enough to make his beloved wife who just got married in June cry happy tears on the sidelines. This is Yosuke Watanuki's 6th Challenge Championship in his career and the first Gold Cup outside of Japan. After the game, he said with emotion: "Taipei has always given me a different feeling. I won the Formosa Cup championship here as a teenager. In fact, the goal of me and the coaching staff this year is to win a championship overseas. I am very happy to achieve it in Taipei. This really means a lot to me."

Yosuke Watanuki's world ranking reached a new high of 72 on October 30, 2023. He was regarded as the successor of "Prince of Tennis" Kei Nishikori, but he was repeatedly affected by injuries and once dropped to 420. Now the Sandaiko Cup has to start from outside the conference, but unexpectedly he got through all the way, and even won the 1st, 3rd, and 6th seeds on the inside stage, and finally The dramatic comeback strengthened his will to make a comeback. "I did consider retirement, but I was still a little reluctant. I wanted to play like I did when I was young and compete against those masters again. Now I try to focus on training. I am trying to get better regardless of physical, mental or technical aspects. I hope that my condition will continue to improve next year."