Shang-hai Surprise: The Juncheng Shang Thread

buscemi

Legend
Juncheng Shang is rising in the rankings. After winning the Lexington Challenger this weekend, he is now by far the highest ranked 17 year-old in the live rankings at #241 (next highest ranked is Daniel Mérida at #537). In fact, Shang is also ranked higher in the live rankings than any 18 year-old (next highest ranked is Luca Van Assche at #280).

In addition to winning Lexington, he helped out a sick ball kid during one of his matches.

Oh, yeah, and he has a pretty sweet left handed forehand and is being coached by none other than Marcelo Rios.

 

James P

G.O.A.T.
I heard today he's on a trial period coach-student contract with Rios. Who would have thought Marcelo Rios would ever become a coach? Very abrasive personality.

OTOH, the early scouting report on Shang is that he's a finesse/variety style player, so maybe Rios is the kind of guy that can sharpen those skills.
 

Pmasterfunk

Hall of Fame
Juncheng Shang is rising in the rankings. After winning the Lexington Challenger this weekend, he is now by far the highest ranked 17 year-old in the live rankings at #241 (next highest ranked is Daniel Mérida at #537). In fact, Shang is also ranked higher in the live rankings than any 18 year-old (next highest ranked is Luca Van Assche at #280).

In addition to winning Lexington, he helped out a sick ball kid during one of his matches.

Oh, yeah, and he has a pretty sweet left handed forehand and is being coached by none other than Marcelo Rios.

Rios really living that thug life

Watching this thread for the comically mismatched hijinks that a rich kid from Beijing and a rich kid from Vitacura-turned wannabe gangster may produce. I want to purchase the rights to the future Hollywood biopic movie right now.

A bit more seriously, I saw Shang play a few months ago, and I was impressed with his smooth strokes. His backhand especially? I can't remember which side, honestly. He definitely needs to improve his fitness if he wants to compete with the pros, but I think he's worth keeping tabs on.
 

buscemi

Legend
This kid is definitely fast tracking. Not Alcaraz pace, but maybe Sinner/Rune/Musetti pace.

I just checked the numbers. Shang is about 17 years and 7 months old. He's #202 in the live rankings and would rise to about #188 with a win today.

At the same age:

Alcaraz was about #138​
Sinner was about #311​
Rune was about #473​
Musetti was about #1057​

So, he's definitely behind Alcaraz but definitely ahead of the others. Now, the question is whether he can keep up his pace.
 
Last edited:
In before the mindless speculation that will surely infect Shang’s progress:

Is it a real 6 feet of altitude he possesses or will he become Not So Jumbo Jerry??? o_O

I don't know, in this pic from Lexington he looks a couple of inches taller than Rios, who was 5'9 on a good day, so if he's not 6 feet I'd say he is at least very close. And who knows... he may still be growing! Today, however, in order to look his opponent in the eye, he would have needed a telescope. And speaking of Lexington, I'm curious to see if the gigantic Diallo will now also be tempted to ditch UK and try his luck as a pro...

 

stringertom

Bionic Poster
I don't know, in this pic from Lexington he looks a couple of inches taller than Rios, who was 5'9 on a good day, so if he's not 6 feet I'd say he is at least very close. And who knows... he may still be growing! Today, however, in order to look his opponent in the eye, he would have needed a telescope. And speaking of Lexington, I'm curious to see if the gigantic Diallo will now also be tempted to ditch UK and try his luck as a pro...

Maybe Rios has exchanged some of his altitude for his much increased circumference from heavy lifting. His previous career path is camouflaged under all that mass.

The trophy photos of Shang and Ethan Quinn at 2021 Easter Bowl show Jerry was 4 to 5 inches shorter than runner up Quinn. That was 16 months ago so he probably has grown a bit. Probably both have grown because Quinn looked every bit of his listed height of 6’3” when he played USO qualies last week.
 

gogo

Legend
Thank you to everyone for highlighting Jerry. I'll definitely be following this young guy! It would have been great if he could have won the 2 Challenger tourneys in a row, but still a great showing.

(Regarding Diallo, I knew nothing about him and the first that I read was that he was 6'7". I presumed that he was 'just a servebot'. But I watched some of today's match, and I was clearly wrong. He doesn't "look" 6'7" and he is quite agile and fast. I'll be watching his career as well.)
 

stringertom

Bionic Poster
Thank you to everyone for highlighting Jerry. I'll definitely be following this young guy! It would have been great if he could have won the 2 Challenger tourneys in a row, but still a great showing.

(Regarding Diallo, I knew nothing about him and the first that I read was that he was 6'7". I presumed that he was 'just a servebot'. But I watched some of today's match, and I was clearly wrong. He doesn't "look" 6'7" and he is quite agile and fast. I'll be watching his career as well.)
Did Diallo do a lot of late blooming when he left Montreal to attend Kentucky? I am shock the top Canadian fan (IMHO) on the forum had not heard of him as a junior.
 

Down_the_line

G.O.A.T.
Did Diallo do a lot of late blooming when he left Montreal to attend Kentucky? I am shock the top Canadian fan (IMHO) on the forum had not heard of him as a junior.
I'm in Canada and have been following this sport for a long time and I haven't heard of him either. Despite Raonic, Pospisil and Bouchard, and then Andreescu, Felix, Shapovalov and Fernandez further, bringing the sport more into the limelight in Canada, there is still a huge lack of promotion for it, specifically for our national program. I figured it was because our program wasn't as good as it was looking for a time there but it might also just an utter lack of marketing and promotion.
 

gogo

Legend
Did Diallo do a lot of late blooming when he left Montreal to attend Kentucky? I am shock the top Canadian fan (IMHO) on the forum had not heard of him as a junior.

I have to admit that I haven't followed the juniors for the past couple of years, but at his age, you would have thought I would have noticed him. I didn't. Shame on me. I am going to presume that Gab IS a late bloomer. Seems that he and Liam Draxl (a name that has been around from quite a young age) have led Kentucky to a great NCAA season. The super tall guys are often late bloomers, right?

ETA: Sorry, I didn't mean to take this thread off topic from Jerry and his wonderful talents. Perhaps we need a different thread to discuss Gab Diallo? Of course it might be premature.
 

buscemi

Legend
Here are the highlights.

Again, it is very impressive that Shung is still only 17 years old!
And that Diallo seems to have come out of nowhere.

Wow. Diallo has a big serve and forehand and a solid net game. I'm really looking forward to seeing what both of these guys will do over the next few yers!
 

jindra

Hall of Fame
I don't know, in this pic from Lexington he looks a couple of inches taller than Rios, who was 5'9 on a good day, so if he's not 6 feet I'd say he is at least very close. And who knows... he may still be growing! Today, however, in order to look his opponent in the eye, he would have needed a telescope. And speaking of Lexington, I'm curious to see if the gigantic Diallo will now also be tempted to ditch UK and try his luck as a pro...


How many inches in a foot? :-D
 

PSNELKE

Legend
Shang could have a Kwon, Nishioka type of career but that's absolutely about it. He can keep the ball in play and run like a bunny and that's pretty much it. As soon as he faces someone who serves halfway decent and doesn't spray UEs, Shang is toast.

That's exactly what Thompson did and it is enough to leave Shang without any chance whatsoever.
 

travlerajm

Talk Tennis Guru
Shang could have a Kwon, Nishioka type of career but that's absolutely about it. He can keep the ball in play and run like a bunny and that's pretty much it. As soon as he faces someone who serves halfway decent and doesn't spray UEs, Shang is toast.

That's exactly what Thompson did and it is enough to leave Shang without any chance whatsoever.
Splitting two tiebreak sets and forcing a 3rd set is at least a prayer, right?
 

PSNELKE

Legend
Splitting two tiebreak sets and forcing a 3rd set is at least a prayer, right?

He had absolutely zero chance until Thompson mugged the match away at 5-4 in the 2nd, serving for the match. I stand by my observation. Kwon, Nishioka typa career for Shang
 

James P

G.O.A.T.
Shang could have a Kwon, Nishioka type of career but that's absolutely about it. He can keep the ball in play and run like a bunny and that's pretty much it. As soon as he faces someone who serves halfway decent and doesn't spray UEs, Shang is toast.

That's exactly what Thompson did and it is enough to leave Shang without any chance whatsoever.
In fairness, he's beaten Thompson before, could be having a bad day. Also, Chang rode foot speed to a major title and #2 in the world.

I'm just happy to see a player from a non-traditional nation doing well. He, Yibing Wu, and Zhizhen Zhang should all break into the top 100 in the next 12 months, and they'll be the first to do so from China.
 

Tennisfever

New User
Shang could have a Kwon, Nishioka type of career but that's absolutely about it. He can keep the ball in play and run like a bunny and that's pretty much it. As soon as he faces someone who serves halfway decent and doesn't spray UEs, Shang is toast.

That's exactly what Thompson did and it is enough to leave Shang without any chance whatsoever.

Did you even watch the match man? 3-setter with two tie-breaks and you call that “without a chance whatsoever”?

If you don’t like the player, fine. If you don’t like Asian players, less fine but whatever floats your boat. But please spare us these nonsense comments based on nothing but prejudice and hot air.
 

stringertom

Bionic Poster
:rolleyes:

Try Florida and he sounds like it too.
The “I” in IMG does stand for International. Bradenton has a long tradition for being a haven for players and coaches from all over the world. This dates back to at least the mid-1980s when pre-teen Monica Seles and family came to the NBTA to develop her game under “Uncle” Nick Bollettieri.

I visited the campus a few times in the early 90s and was amazed at all the languages I heard spoken as I walked through their common areas. A trained ear can pick up how long some of the kids have been there by hearing how easily they will shift from their native languages to English and then back. It really is a cool place to visit.
 

PSNELKE

Legend
"Forgetting any more Asian players?"
"If you don't like Asian players...."

What the actual f happened to this forum? Lmfao. You know why the comparison with Kwon and Nishioka? Because he's literally the same built like Kwon, plays lefty like Nishioka, moves exactly like these two and lacks powerful groundies like these two. All I said is he'll have a Nishioka, Kwon typa career which is still respectable considering they made 2 and 4 million $ respectively.
 

jm1980

Talk Tennis Guru
Shang could have a Kwon, Nishioka type of career but that's absolutely about it. He can keep the ball in play and run like a bunny and that's pretty much it. As soon as he faces someone who serves halfway decent and doesn't spray UEs, Shang is toast.

That's exactly what Thompson did and it is enough to leave Shang without any chance whatsoever.
He beat Thompson 5 and 4 three weeks ago at Granby, and getting to a third set following two tiebreakers is not "without any chance whatsoever"
 

jindra

Hall of Fame
Rios is not exactly the most stable guy, but that story of not practicing when the dad had Covid is pretty crazy...
 

PSNELKE

Legend
Had the chance to watch him again Charlottesville challenger against Eubanks. No way he cracks anything above Top 100. His entire game relies on grinding and opponents errors. Was up 5-3 in the 3rd set and had 3 MPs on his own serve. Then he was up 4-0, 5-1 and 6-4 in the TieBreak and blew 6 MPs alltogether. 5 of them on his own serve. Eubanks converted his 2nd MP with ease.

His serve is non existent, no power on any of his shots and his shot selection on crucial points is comical. Not to mention how badly behaved he is, every single match I've seen, he's been fighting with the umpire. First time he did not take an MTO when I watched him.
 

travlerajm

Talk Tennis Guru
Had the chance to watch him again Charlottesville challenger against Eubanks. No way he cracks anything above Top 100. His entire game relies on grinding and opponents errors. Was up 5-3 in the 3rd set and had 3 MPs on his own serve. Then he was up 4-0, 5-1 and 6-4 in the TieBreak and blew 6 MPs alltogether. 5 of them on his own serve. Eubanks converted his 2nd MP with ease.

His serve is non existent, no power on any of his shots and his shot selection on crucial points is comical. Not to mention how badly behaved he is, every single match I've seen, he's been fighting with the umpire. First time he did not take an MTO when I watched him.
His bratty behavior makes it hard to root for him.
 

jm1980

Talk Tennis Guru
Had the chance to watch him again Charlottesville challenger against Eubanks. No way he cracks anything above Top 100. His entire game relies on grinding and opponents errors. Was up 5-3 in the 3rd set and had 3 MPs on his own serve. Then he was up 4-0, 5-1 and 6-4 in the TieBreak and blew 6 MPs alltogether. 5 of them on his own serve. Eubanks converted his 2nd MP with ease.

His serve is non existent, no power on any of his shots and his shot selection on crucial points is comical. Not to mention how badly behaved he is, every single match I've seen, he's been fighting with the umpire. First time he did not take an MTO when I watched him.
He is 17 years old, lol
 

PSNELKE

Legend
He is 17 years old, lol

He turns 18 in 3 months. If he doesn't have any juice on his shots by now, he never will. He's too short, no serve, no power. He can milk the tour through his athleticism alone for a decade until that's gone as well. He'll linger around Top 150 for most of his career, doesn't help that he has a temper either
 

jm1980

Talk Tennis Guru
He turns 18 in 3 months. If he doesn't have any juice on his shots by now, he never will. He's too short, no serve, no power. He can milk the tour through his athleticism alone for a decade until that's gone as well. He'll linger around Top 150 for most of his career, doesn't help that he has a temper either
Diego Schwartzman got to the Top 10 being even shorter and having no serve either
 

PSNELKE

Legend
Diego Schwartzman got to the Top 10 being even shorter and having no serve either

Schwartzman's baseline game is elite. Complete different dimension from what Shang has. I know it would be cool to have another (2nd) Chinese Top 100 player but Shang ain't it. Waste of attention
 

jm1980

Talk Tennis Guru
Schwartzman's baseline game is elite. Complete different dimension from what Shang has. I know it would be cool to have another (2nd) Chinese Top 100 player but Shang ain't it. Waste of attention
When Schwartzman was at Shang's current age (17 years 9 months), he was ranked #773

Shang is #184 now and you're telling me he will "linger around Top 150 for most of his career"? LOL
 
Top