Kung Fu In Chengdu: Were Dimitrov & Kecmanovic Up For The Challenge?

Ahead of the Chinese hard-court swing, Grigor Dimitrov and Miomir Kecmanovic soaked in the country’s rich martial arts culture by trying kung fu.

Dimitrov and Kecmanovic, who are in action this week at the Chengdu Open, watched demonstrations from kung fu masters depicting the various styles of the Chinese art, before learning some of the most iconic stances and testing their wrist strength in a training exercise.

“I’m a big fan of kung fu, but I don’t think I did very well today,” Dimitrov joked. “I think it’s an amazing art and I’m such a huge Jackie Chan fan, so it was nice to experience that a little and hopefully one day I will have the chance to explore more of it. Doing the standing poses was really fun.”

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The cultural activity took place at Feng Qing Lake, which is located near the Sichuan International Tennis Centre, where the ATP 250 event is held. Seventh seed Kecmanovic, who is making his Chengdu debut, enjoyed the challenge.

“I never got to try kung fu before and I see now that it’s actually very difficult and not as easy as they make it look,” Kecmanovic said. “I really enjoyed my time. My favourite was when we tried replicating the poses they showed us. It was quite fun and I hope I get the chance to do more of that.”

Credit: Chengdu Open