Coleman Wong battles into first ATP quarterfinal of career on home soil in Hong Kong

Coleman Wong is no stranger to making history—his biggest splash came last year at the US Open, where he qualified and became the first man representing Hong Kong to play in the main draw of a Grand Slam in the Open Era. He went on to reach the third round there, too.

Today, he struck again—and on home soil.

With a 1-6, 7-5, 7-5 victory over Canada's Gabriel Diallo at the ATP 250 event in Hong Kong, the 21-year-old Wong is now through to the first ATP quarterfinal of his career—and he's also the first man representing Hong Kong to reach an ATP quarterfinal in the Open Era.

"It sounds unreal," he said after the grueling victory. "It's not easy to be an athlete in Hong Kong. Coming from such a small place and now being in the quarterfinals of an ATP, I just want to keep going."

For much of the second-round clash on Wednesday, it looked like Diallo was in control—not only did he roll through the first set in just 30 minutes, but then, after Wong jumped out to a 5-2 lead in the second set, he caught back up to 5-all, and even had double break point in the next game that would have given him a chance to serve for it.

But Wong held then broke to take the set, and then—after watching another 5-2 lead evaporate to 5-all in the third set—he again regrouped, holding for 6-5 then breaking one last time to close it out.

Wong's win over the No. 40-ranked Diallo was also the second-biggest win of his career by ranking, having beaten a No. 14-ranked Ben Shelton in the second round of the Masters 1000 in Miami last year.

"Gabriel is such a great player," Wong said in his on-court interview. "We pushed each other to the limit, and at the end, I don't know—I was up 5-2, then he came back to 5-all, and I was like, 'Wow, I don't know if I can close this out.' And then at the end, I just kept believing in myself, kept believing in what I was working on in these past years."

Things will only get tougher from here for Wong, though, as awaiting him in the quarterfinals will be No. 7-ranked Lorenzo Musetti.

The Italian, who's the top seed this week, had to battle back from a set down to advance to the quarterfinals, too, defeating Argentina's Tomas Martin Etcheverry earlier in the day, 6-7 (3), 6-2, 6-4.

The two have met once before, in the first round of Hong Kong two years ago, with Musetti prevailing that time, 6-4, 7-5.