Shang is back: "I no longer feel pain and play happily on the court, no matter what the results are"

Andrés Tomás Rico | 27 Jul 2025 | 18.56

Shang is back: "I no longer feel pain and play happily on the court, no matter what the results are." Photo: Gettyimages

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His name only appears in five matches in this 2025. After a great start to the year reaching the semifinals of the ATP Hong Kong, Juncheng Shang realized something was wrong with his left foot during his debut at the Australian Open against Alejandro Davidovich, to the point that he was forced to retire at the end of the second set. What initially seemed like minor discomfort turned into a left foot operation that has kept him away from the racket for over six months.

"In Australia, I was having a tough time. We thought it was a bone bruise or something, and we thought it wasn't serious," the Chinese player said in statements collected by ATP. But things kept getting worse: "Sometimes I would wake up in the middle of the night and the pain would start, and I had to walk a little to get the pain to go away."

From minor discomfort to surgery

The situation was not easy, but Shang realized what the solution was: "After a month, it still hurt the same. Sometimes it hurt more, and I had pain even at rest when I slept, so I thought: 'Wow, this is possibly heading in that direction.'"

But resting was not enough, and the decision to completely end the pain required going under the knife. That meant saying goodbye to almost half of the season, but Shang accepted the sporting consequences in order to recover physically: "The pain disappeared, except for the cuts from the scalpel. Obviously, the medication helped me a lot at the beginning. But then, during the rehabilitation, I felt some pain here and there. When walking, you were always afraid that something would break because you didn't feel it as your own. Overall, it has gone very well. I'm glad I had a good time at home with my family, and my physiotherapist Charlie is great. He played a very important role in this rehabilitation."

Once the pain and recovery process were overcome, the 20-year-old returned to pick up the racket: "That's when I realized the foot problem was resolved, and all we had to do was get back in shape and find the rhythm of the game, and I would be ready for tournaments. I think the most exciting thing is that I feel no pain and play happily on the court. No matter what the results are."

Having regained his game rhythm, Shang returns to competition at the ATP Toronto. It will be his third tournament of the season at the end of June, so he must gather points, feelings, and victories as soon as possible: "I am happy to be able to play the few remaining tournaments this year, which are not many. But I have my favorite part of the season, which is at home, just after the US Open. So everything is positive, I believe."

Although for now, he just wants to enjoy: "Obviously, the pace on the circuit is very different from that of training. When coaches hit the balls to you, the pace is completely different... There is a lot at stake, and I have very good feelings about being back. And most importantly for me, once again, it's just to enjoy, because I haven't played for a long time, I've only played two tournaments this year. Playing my first 1000 tournament, I think it's very special to be here in Toronto," admits Shang, who went from being the 47th in the world to dropping 40 positions to number 87, but now he has a golden opportunity to recover his best tennis after a ordeal that started with discomfort and led him to the operating room.

This news is an automatic translation. You can read the original news, Shang está de vuelta: "Ya no siento dolor y juego feliz en la pista, no importa cuáles sean los resultados"