A former junior no. 1 and the most prominent Chinese prospect Yibing Wu had a breakthrough run in 2017, kicking off the season from outside the top-900 and almost cracking the top-300 12 months later after the first Futures and Challenger title.
In addition, the youngster became the US Open junior champion in both singles and doubles to end the junior journey on a high note and switch focus on pro events in 2018. Nonetheless, things were not that bright for the Hangzhou native, winning 12 main draw matches overall and reaching just one Futures final.
Yibing had a chance to play in the main draw of three back-to-back ATP tournaments in Chengdu, Beijing and Shanghai where he defeated Zhe Li for the first win in the ATP tournament. Also, Wu signed with IMG and got the opportunity to work with the established coach Sven Groeneveld who had worked with Mary Pierce, Ana Ivanovic, Michael Stich, Caroline Wozniacki, Tommy Haas, Mario Ancic and Maria Sharapova.
The plan was to spend the off-season in Florida and to attack the higher ranking positions in 2019 although Yibing is yet to play a match in the new season, looking to change that next weekend against Japan in Davis Cup Qualifiers if he is ready to compete.
When he returns to the individual action, Sven will not be in his coaching box, deciding to part ways with a teenager due to disagreements with Yibings mother about the next steps that he should take in his young career.
I am no longer working with Yibing Wu. In my opinion, he has a right to have a coach whose views are better aligned with his mother. I want to thank Yibing for a great past eight months, winning the silver medal at the Asian Games and his first win on the ATP Tour.
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