Monte Carlo serves up boost for Bu

Such a pity, but what an effort — China's rising tennis star Buyunchaokete might have narrowly missed out on delivering another huge upset at his clay Masters debut, but has served up plenty of positive spin, as his upswing on the men's pro circuit continues apace.

Known in China as "Xiao Bu", transliterated as "baby step" in English, Buyunchaokete has made his presence felt on the ATP Tour, with a series of breakout results since fall last year helping him leapfrog up the rankings, and the 22-year-old baseliner is showing no sign of slowing down this season.

And he was so close on Monday to backing up his recent surge with another shock result.

With his straight-sets win against the same opponent at last year's China Open still fresh, Buyunchaokete seemed on course to stun Italy's world No 16 Lorenzo Musetti again in their first-round clash at the Monte Carlo Masters, after taking the first set in 50 minutes at the clay-court ATP 1000 tournament.

The Italian 13th seed and 2024 Wimbledon semifinalist, however, came back strong late in the second set, exploiting Bu's lack of consistency and stamina with sharp cross-court winners and quality in long rallies to narrowly avoid being eliminated by his Chinese foe for a second time in a row.

Despite eventually coming up short, Bu capped off his maiden clay Masters campaign with a lot of positive takeaways, as he proved his elite caliber, even when physically not at his best.

"I was kind of tired late in the match, felt like I was running out of gas," said Bu, who wasted a 4-2 lead in the second set, before eventually falling 6-4, 5-7, 3-6 to Musetti in his third match in as many days.

"I wouldn't make any excuses, though. Physically, I was OK, despite the fatigue. It was just in the beginning of a couple of games in the third set that I didn't take the chances as aggressively as I should have.

"Once he took control of the pace, he just dictated the play with the quality of his shots and his improved defense.

"I didn't maintain my level as consistently as I needed to throughout the match. I had some ups and downs, and I made a few rash decisions.

"But, I can live with that, as this was already a great week for me," said Bu, who's climbed to a career high No 64 in the live ATP rankings this week, with 32 points earned from two qualifier wins to make the main draw in Monte Carlo.

A talented young prospect, singled out years ago by pundits in China as a future pro contender, Bu only took the leap from the entry-level Challenger circuit to the ATP Tour late last year, due to his lengthy recovery from a series of health issues that had bogged him down with a series of long layoffs from competition.

Back-to-back Tour-level semifinal runs, first at the ATP250 Hangzhou Open in September, and again in Beijing, at the ATP500 China Open in October, have proved his doubters wrong — big time — while suggesting at the untapped potential of a healthy Bu.

Although having not advanced beyond the quarterfinals at any of the 12 tournaments he's played so far this year, Bu's kept his momentum going, underlined by snatching up his career-first and — second overseas Masters main draw victories in the opening rounds at Indian Wells and Miami last month.

When the tricky transition to the clay season approached, Bu apparently handled it more easily than expected, with his relentless movement on the baseline and solid groundstrokes from both corners proving an asset in taming the challenging surface ahead of most of his compatriots.