Strength + Luck, China's tennis star achieves a breakthrough in Cincinnati

From Olympic gold medals to Grand Slam titles, from being the top seed to world number one, Chinese women's doubles have consistently brought numerous honors and surprises to fans, often regarded as a "traditional stronghold" of Chinese tennis.

The latest entries for women's doubles at the US Open clearly illustrate this. Currently, directly qualified pairs include Zhang Shuai/Alexandrova, Jiang Xinyue/Zhan Haoting, Guo Hanyu/Paranova, Yang Zhaoxuan/Xu Yifan, Wang Yafan/Qingshan Shuiko, and Yuan Yue/Ossorio. Additionally, Zhu Lin partnering with Zheng Saisai is currently the second alternate, while the international duo of Tang Qianhui and Saint Maria holds the third alternate position, meaning we can expect to see eight combinations featuring Chinese players at this year's US Open.

Returning to this week's highlight event, the Cincinnati tournament has entered its final rounds, and we are delighted to see young player Guo Hanyu and her seasoned partner reach the women's doubles semifinals. In the quarterfinals, Guo Hanyu/Paranova faced the Grand Slam champion duo of Krejcikova/Ostapenko. However, Krejcikova, who had just suffered a crushing defeat in singles against Paulini, withdrew from the match against Guo Hanyu due to a severe foot injury that affected her performance.

With Guo Hanyu/Paranova advancing to the semifinals without playing, Chinese players earned 390 points and shared $74,700, while their doubles world ranking improved by six spots to 22nd. They are now ranked 12th in the women's doubles championship standings for the season.

According to the draw, they will challenge the top seed Paulini/Errani in the semifinals, while the other women’s doubles final spot in the bottom half will be contested between [2] Dabrowski/Leduc and [6] Kichenok/Perez. The overall performance of seeded players in women's doubles at this event has been quite stable, and we look forward to seeing the young Chinese players continue their strong partnership and secure more victories.

In addition to doubles, the women's singles quarterfinals have also been finalized. The upper half features two quarterfinal matches: [1] Sabalenka vs. [9] Rybakina and [3] Swiatek vs. [28] Kalinskaya; the lower half has [Q] Grachova vs. Kudermetova and [7] Paulini vs. [2] Gauff.

One of the most surprising entries on this list is the breakthrough of qualifying player Grachova, who has made it to the women's singles quarterfinals in Cincinnati after winning six consecutive matches. This is her first time reaching this stage in her career.

It is noteworthy that Grachova was eliminated in the first round of the previous tournament (WTA 1000 Montreal) by Chinese player Zhu Lin, but in just one week, she has significantly improved her competitive form, which is quite impressive.(Source: Tennis Home, Author: Barbie)