Justin Engel became the first player born in 2007 with an ATP win

Justin Engel is the big story of the day. The German teenager became the first tennis player born in 2007 to win a match at the ATP level and the youngest tennis player to achieve victory at the highest level since Carlos Alcaraz did so at the age of 16 in 2020.

Interestingly, Justin Engel turned 17 just 2 weeks ago and is the highest ranked player in the world under the age of 18. The teenager is currently ranked No 458 in the world after being outside the Top 1300 at the start of the season. Engel won his first professional title in May at the $15,000 M15 Villach 01 (Austria), and has since gone on to win three more titles at that level.

The youngster did not stop there and last week he reached the quarter-finals of the Villena ATP Challenger 100, and in the Round of 16 defeated the second-seeded Luca Van Assche, who a few months ago was ranked number 63 in the world and this January reached the third round of Australian Open. In the end, Justin Engel’s streak ended in the quarter-finals, but his performances caught the attention of the organizers of the ATP 250 Almaty Open in Kazakhstan, and today he made the most of his wild card into the main draw, outplaying Coleman Wong (Hong Kong) by 2-0 (7:5, 6:4) in 1 hour 35 minutes of playing time.

Actually Coleman Wong is having a very strong season and is currently on schedule to qualify for the Next Gen ATP Finals, having recorded his debut ATP win at the ATP 250 Hangzhou Open after knocking out Yibing Wu, but this time Coleman Wong had to be on the other side, becoming the first victim of the 17-year-old tennis player at the highest level. The German saved 9 of the 10 breakpoints and made two late breaks, which will allow him to test himself in the second round against the fourth-seeded Francisco Cerundolo.