Another remarkable pattern emerges: no Chinese player has won after qualifying from the domestic 125 tournaments.

As widely recognized, WTA tournaments are categorized from top to bottom as Grand Slams, Tour events, Challengers, and Hope events. Therefore, there is some disagreement about whether the 125 tournaments should be called Challengers or Tour events. In this article, they are considered Challenger events because, in both ATP and WTA, the lowest level of Tour events is the 250 series, so naturally, the 125 events fall under Challengers.

Since September, four 125 Challenger tournaments have been held in China. Unfortunately, no Chinese player who advanced from the qualifying rounds has managed to win a main draw match. So, what exactly is going on? This article will take you through the details.

At the beginning of September, the 125 Challenger started first in Changsha. Due to low world rankings, seven Chinese players—Guo Meiqi, Liu Fangzhou, Li Zongyu, Wang Meiling, Feng Shuo, and others—had to begin in the qualifiers. After Guo Meiqi lost a compatriot derby, Feng Shuo withdrew; Wang Jiaqi pushed Russian player Kudashova to a tiebreak but ultimately lost due to the skill gap; Wang Meiling advanced by luck after her opponent retired in a tight second set following a first set loss; Liu Fangzhou and Yuan Chengyiyi both lost and were eliminated.

In the final qualifying round, Li Zongyu was defeated in straight sets by Italian player Pieri; Guo Meiqi won decisively against Wang Meiling in another compatriot derby, becoming the only Chinese player to qualify. Unfortunately, in the first round of the main draw, Guo Meiqi fought hard but was soundly beaten by the tournament’s fifth seed, Thailand’s Lanlana.

After the Changsha Challenger, the Huzhou Challenger qualifiers became a disaster for Chinese players. In the first qualifying round, Yuan Chengyiyi was overwhelmed by Russia’s Kudashova; Xu Guyu was blanked twice by Kazakhstan’s Kurambayeva; Guo Meiqi and Li Zongyu both lost after winning the first set but were reversed in the next two sets. Thus, none of the four Chinese players won a match in the qualifiers, which is objectively disappointing.

At the end of September in the Jingshan Challenger qualifiers, seven Chinese players—Ye Qiuyu, Xun Fangying, Lu Jingjing, Zhang Ying, Wang Jiaqi, Tian Fangran, and Guo Meiqi—participated. Ye Qiuyu advanced without playing due to an opponent’s withdrawal. Except for Xun Fangying and Wang Jiaqi who lost their matches, the other five Chinese players reached the final qualifying round.

Regrettably, in the final qualifying round, Ye Qiuyu, Zhang Ying, and Lu Jingjing all battled their opponents to the deciding set but failed to win. Tian Fangran, after losing the first set, came back to defeat compatriot Guo Meiqi—who had already won three Hope events in the 2025 season—and qualified for the main draw. However, in the first round of the main event, Tian Fangran was crushed by Japan’s Nishigo Rina, winning only one game.

A few days ago, Lu Jiajing, Zheng Wushuang, Tian Fangran, Zhu Chenting, Yao Xinxin, and Zhang Ruien appeared in the Jinan Challenger qualifiers. In the first round, Tian Fangran and Zhang Ruien won their compatriot derbies against Zheng Wushuang and Yao Xinxin to advance; Zhu Chenting was soundly defeated and eliminated; veteran Lu Jiajing, despite winning the first set, was overturned in two sets by Russian player E Ovcharenko.

In the final qualifying round, Zhang Ruien was swept out by Indonesian player Nugroho; Tian Fangran convincingly defeated Japan’s Imamura Emi, qualifying for the main draw for the second time in a home-held 125 Challenger.

In the first round of the main draw, Tian Fangran faced the tournament’s fourth seed, Slovenian player Erjavec. Erjavec won in straight sets, but Tian Fangran showed progress by pushing the match to a tiebreak. That’s the tennis story for today; more to come tomorrow.(Source: Tennis Home, Author: Yixin Jushi)