Li Zhe, the former first brother of men's tennis: Huzhou is a city with a strong sense of luck

The 2025 China Tennis Tour officially sounded the "first horn" in the beautiful ancient city of Huzhou, south of the Yangtze River, and the most watched player in this tournament is undoubtedly the former Chinese men's tennis leader - 38-year-old veteran Li Zhe. Since he was 8 years old, Li Zhe's sports career has lasted for 30 years, and the former Chinese brother from Tianjin has witnessed the important development of tennis in China.

"I think the current breakthroughs in Chinese tennis are all accumulated bit by bit in the past, including many predecessors and our generation, everyone is constantly working hard, trying and breaking through in their own era." Li Zhe talked about the current situation of Chinese tennis and said, "I am actually very pleased to see the current development of Chinese tennis. I believe that in the next 5 to 10 years, there will be more surprises waiting for you to witness. ”

Over the past two years, Li Zhe has gradually transitioned into a coaching role, best known for his successful partnership with Buyun Chaokert during last year's China season. Under the guidance and help of "Brother Tiger", Buyun Chaokert has achieved excellent results in the men's singles semifinals in Hangzhou and Beijing ATP Tour back-to-back, and the world ranking has since broken through the TOP100 mark, becoming the fourth athlete in Chinese mainland to break into the world's top 100 men's tennis. Born in Xinjiang, Buyun Chaoket came to Huzhou to train tennis at an early age, and is currently the most successful tennis player from Huzhou.

"In the past, Xiaobu and I were both athletes, and we were opponents on the field, but in fact, what everyone saw was only the surface. Now that we know each other better, I slowly learned that he is an athlete who works so hard, which is very surprising to me, he will strive to do his best in everything in life, and he is also a very sensible child, I am very happy for him to see that he has a very deep understanding and hard work on his career. ”

In fact, this competition in Huzhou is Li Zhe's second time in the city. On his first visit to Huzhou last October, Li Zhe and Buyun went with Buyun to the latter's training ground as a child.

"I also took some videos of him at the time, and I said this is where you used to play, and he was right." Li Zhe recalled, "I am very happy to come to Huzhou, if it weren't for this competition, we wouldn't have had the opportunity to come here." The feeling of this city is that people are very happy, the pace of life is relatively slow, and the pressure is not very high, unlike some other big cities, it is a comfortable and happy city, which is what I feel deeply. ”

In addition to coaching professional players such as Buyun Chaoket, Li Zhe has focused on his tennis academy in the past two years, hoping to pass on his valuable experience to the new generation of Chinese players and build an "arsenal" of Chinese tennis.

"My original intention in founding the Tennis Academy was to help Chinese tennis discover more potential athletes, and as a former professional athlete, I hope to be able to deliver the right message to everyone in this era of information explosion. So I started to do it slowly at the end of 2023, and over the last year and a half, I've slowly transformed myself to understand how the tennis academy is going to do it. Now our base camp is moving from Zhuhai to Shenzhen, and the team has gradually grown. The process was very difficult, but we built it little by little with our own hands. ”

In the process of "transformation", Li Zhe has never been able to let go of his nostalgia for the court, he is the oldest player in this event, and he chose to stick to the court, which stems from his deep love for tennis: "I can't let go of my nostalgia for the court, as an athlete in the past, I was running at a speed of 200 kilometers every day, and suddenly I would feel very uncomfortable if I stopped you." In the two years from the 2021 National Games to the end of 2023, it took a long time for me to make the decision to leave the competition. ”

"My parents are not athletes, I also came into contact with tennis by chance, all the way to the present, my parents taught me more perseverance, this is the greatest wealth they gave me, tennis has really changed my life, this sport has taught me the ability to resist frustration, and made me who I am now. Although I have achieved high achievements like some players now, I have achieved my own ceiling within my ability, and I am also grateful for the things that tennis has brought me, so I hope that through the establishment of the tennis academy, I can give back my gains to more children, players and parents, so that Chinese tennis will get better and better. ”