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.

Bu Yunchaokete hits a return during the men's singles second round match between Bu Yunchaokete of China and Lorenzo Musetti of Italy at 2024 China Open tennis tournament in Beijing, capital of China, Sept. 29, 2024. (Xinhua/Zhang Long)

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.

His straight-sets win in the second qualifying round on Sunday over Spanish veteran Albert Ramos-Vinolas, the tournament's 2017 finalist (beaten by Rafael Nadal), served up proof of Bu's quick adaptation to clay court tennis.

"Overall I feel pretty satisfied with my performance here. This was my first Masters main draw on clay after all, and it was already a tough accomplishment to make it into the draw," said Bu, who is based in Alicante, southwestern Spain, with his Spanish coach Ricardo Ojeda Lara for the majority of the season.

"I've learned a lot from the matches here; that playing on clay, you have to accept the ups and downs and shifts of momentum during a match. And that you have to stay focused and try to keep playing with quality."

Born in the remote Bortala Mongolian autonomous prefecture in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, Bu learned how to ride horses long before he even had a clue what tennis was. But, now, he's joined China's top-ranked man Zhang Zhizhen, and young prodigy Shang Juncheng, as flag-bearers for his country in the elite echelons of the game.

His goal for his first full season on the ATP Tour in 2025, as stated last season, is to try to reach the top-50 by the end of the year.

"I will take it step-by-step, and see what I can do," said Bu, who will next play the ATP500 clay tournament in Munich, before further Masters challenges await in Madrid and Rome.

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