Chubb UTS Hong Kong 2025 with Humansa Tournament debut thrills tennis fans

(Hong Kong) The opening quarterfinals of “Chubb UTS Hong Kong 2025 with Humansa” kicked off with a packed Kai Tak Arena full of passionate fans enjoying UTS's uniquely fast-paced format for the first time at the Asia debut of the innovative tournament that has captivated global audiences.

Secretary for Culture, Sports and Tourism, Miss. Rosanna Law Shuk-pui, attended the debut UTS Hong Kong tournament where she met with organisers and expressed her support for Hong Kong's local tennis hero, Coleman Wong. 

Later, Coleman invited top Latin American player Francisco Cerundolo to join him in accompanying Miss. Law in a visit to experience the atmosphere of Kai Tak Stadium as fans gathered to support the Hong Kong, China Football Team, and marking a thrilling feast of international sport at Kai Tak Sports Park.

The highlight of the Hong Kong UTS debut evening saw the crowd’s excitement ramp to full volume as home favourite Coleman Wong took centre stage for his highly anticipated ‘revenge’ match with Andrey Rublev.  Coleman fought back valiantly from his first quarter loss to tie the game in the second quarter, but despite a tightly matched encounter the tournament experience of the World No. 14 saw Rublev take the final two quarters to advance to tomorrow’s semi-finals.

A charismatic Coleman said after the game, “I really enjoyed it, it’s a very fun format but I think that Andrey’s UTS experience ultimately showed in the end. Now I have played for the first time I hope I can improve in my game tomorrow. The whole atmosphere and fans’ support was great today. I hope that more of this kind of tournament can be played in Hong Kong.”

An entertaining first encounter of the evening between French star Adrian Marrarino and Argentina’s Francisco Cerundolo got the debut Hong Kong UTS crowd on the edge of their seats with some key moments of thrillingly long rallies that showcased all the thrills and spills of this excitingly innovative tennis format.

After racing to a two-quarter lead Marrarino, who has already qualified for the London finals, was hauled back by Cerundolo who took the next two quarters before clinching a final two-point tie break to win the match.

Coached by the effervescent character of Nick Kgyrios, Richard Gasquet then took on China favourite Jerry Shang, taking the first quarter before Shang found his feet with the new format to race to secure the second quarter from the Frenchman. A closely contested third quarter saw Shang take the lead for the first time, before finally squeezing past Gasquet in the fourth quarter to progress to the semi-finals with a 3-1 win.

UTS debutants China’s Zhang Zhizhen and American Jason Brooksby entertained with a fast-paced encounter of hard-hitting rallies with the late replacement Brooksby showing the form that has seen the 24-year-old player's world ranking rocket this year, rising from outside the top 1000 in January to a current ranking of 57 as he raced away to defeat Zhang in a straight 3-0 quarter win and book his place in the tomorrow’s semis.

With the evening’s results all in, the points tally sees Mannarino and Rublev already qualify for the UTS Grand Final in London in December. Tomorrow’s match-ups will see the semi- finals featuring Jerry Shang against Jason Brooksby and Andey Rublev facing Francisco Cerundolo, with Coleman Wong playing again in the Classification encounters.