In less than half a year, she climbed 200 spots, achieving champion-level success on Chinese soil.

It is well known that many foreign players have achieved notable results in tennis tournaments held in China. For instance, French player Arnaud Manna secured three out of his four career Challenger titles in China; likewise, Australian player Skurket earned his career-first Challenger title there as well.

However, in the 2025 season, there is a player who not only won multiple titles on Chinese soil but also elevated the level of each championship she claimed. Thanks to this winning streak, her world ranking has significantly improved. So, who is this player? What exactly is going on? Let this article take you through the story.

This player is Indonesian Zeng Limi. At the start of the 2025 season, her world ranking was outside the top 400. Even by early June, when she competed in the Ma’anshan Hope Tournament and had just achieved a five-match winning streak to claim her first Hope title of 2025, her ranking was still not high.

In the first round of the Ma’anshan Hope Tournament, Zeng Limi defeated Chinese player Guo Meiqi without losing a game. She then consecutively beat Chinese Han Jiangxue, Russian Sidorova, Chinese Yang Yidi, and Russian K Pavlova to win her first championship on Chinese soil in 2025. However, since Ma’anshan is just a Hope tournament and the lowest level of Hope events, Zeng Limi’s victory did not attract much attention from fans.

After Ma’anshan, Zeng Limi moved on to the Luzhou Hope Tournament. In the first round, she decisively defeated Chinese qualifier Tian Jialin. Possibly buoyed by confidence from having beaten Chinese players four times in China, she then overcame Chinese players Hou Yanan, Yang Yidi, You Xiaodi, and Liu Fangzhou to claim the title. This marked her tenth consecutive win in China. The Luzhou Hope Tournament is slightly higher in level than Ma’anshan, classified as a 35-level event.

Despite already achieving ten straight wins and back-to-back titles, Zeng Limi was not satisfied. She went on to the Taizhou Challenger, where in the first round she delivered a flawless victory over Russian qualifier K Pavlova. Afterwards, whether it was Chinese qualifier Han Jiangxue, Japanese player Imamura Emi, Hong Kong’s Zhang Weihuan, or Chinese player Yang Yidi, none could overcome her.

In this way, Zeng Limi achieved a fifteen-match winning streak in China, which was also her first Challenger title of the 2025 season. This streak boosted her world ranking by nearly thirty places. It is important to note that the Taizhou Challenger is a higher-level 50-category event.

Last week, Zeng Limi competed in the Jinan Challenger. In the first round, she battled a tough three-set match against wildcard Wang Yafan and eventually won to advance; in the second round, she comfortably defeated Russian P Iatcenko to move forward; in the quarterfinals, she swept Chinese player Gao Xinyu without dropping a game to reach the semifinals.

In the semifinals, despite losing the first set, Zeng Limi came back to win two sets against New Zealand’s Sun Lulu, who had previously reached a Grand Slam quarterfinal; in the final, she fought hard over three sets to defeat Hungarian player Bondar and clinch the title.

This is Zeng Limi’s first 125 Challenger title since entering the professional tennis circuit. With these four titles won in China, her current world ranking has broken into the TOP 100. That’s the tennis story for today; more to come tomorrow.(Source: Tennis Home, Author: Yixin Jushi)