Wong's big moment

Home favorite Coleman Wong Chak-lam went down fighting against Italian rising star Lorenzo Musetti last night at the Bank of China Hong Kong Tennis Open.

Wong, with a career-high singles ranking of 253, had his moments against world No 25 Musetti before losing 6-4, 7-5 in his ATP Tour debut on Centre Court at Victoria Park Stadium.

The 19-year-old served up six aces and converted one of three break-point opportunities during the first-round match that lasted almost two hours.

Sixth-seeded Musetti, 21, will next face Pavel Kotov of Russia.

In another Centre Court match, rusty former US Open champion Marin Cilic squandered nine match points on his return to tennis after an injury-ravaged year, losing a thriller to Jan-Lennard Struff 3-6, 7-6 (7/4), 7-6 (9/7).

The Croatian looked to be cruising to victory in a tricky first-round test against the gritty big-serving German after racing to a set and 5-2 up.

But Cilic was pleased that his troublesome right knee had shown no ill-effects from the meniscus surgery and cartilage damage that kept him out for almost all of 2023.

Struff, who reached two finals last year, will meet world No 43 Sebastian Ofner in the next round after the Austrian cruised past American Mackenzie McDonald 6-1, 6-2.

McDonald made headlines when he knocked out an ailing Rafael Nadal from the Australian Open a year ago, but looked out of sorts in his season opener as he was ousted in just 61 minutes.

Frenchman Arthur Fils, 19, also advanced with a 6-3, 4-6, 6-1 win over Borna Gojo.

Top seed and world No 5 Andrey Rublev of Russia will not begin his campaign until tomorrow after he was given a bye into the last 16.