Li Tu (born 27 May 1996) is an Australian

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

player who mainly competes on the ITF Men's World Tennis Tour. Tu has career-high rankings by the ATP of 190 in singles, reached on 17 October 2022, and 204 in doubles, achieved on 1 August 2022. He made his ATP Tour debut at the

2021 Murray River Open The 2021 Murray River Open was a tournament on the 2021 ATP Tour. It was played on outdoor hard courts in Melbourne, Australia. It was organised as a lead-up tournament to the 2021 Australian Open, and was held at the same venue, due to other t ...

, where he received a wildcard into the singles main draw.

Career

2011–2014: Debut and retirement

Tu made his ITF Futures debut in February 2011 at the Australia F2. He played four other tournaments, losing in the first round in all. Tu competed in the 2012

Junior Davis Cup Junior Davis Cup and Junior Billie Jean King Cup are the international team events in junior tennis (16-and-under age category). History Competitions were launched by the ITF in 1985 as the 16-and-under World Youth Cup, and rebranded in 2002 unde ...

alongside

Thanasi Kokkinakis Athanasios "Thanasi" Kokkinakis ( ; born 10 April 1996) is an Australian professional tennis player and a doubles specialist. He has been ranked as high as world No. 69 in singles by the ATP, which he first achieved on 8 June 2015. He has won ...

, later working as a tennis coach prior to his debut on the senior tour. In February 2014, he won his first match on ITF-level. In April 2014, Tu reached the quarterfinal of the Australia F5, his best result this level, but retired in June 2014.

2020–2021: Return, ATP and major debut, four ITF titles

In 2020, Tu was inspired to return to playing tennis and enjoyed success on the Australian UTR Pro Tennis Series. Tu made his Grand Slam debut at the

2021 Australian Open The 2021 Australian Open was a Grand Slam tennis tournament that took place at Melbourne Park, on 8–21 February 2021. It was the 109th edition of the Australian Open, the 53rd in the Open Era, and the first Major tournament of the year. It w ...

, after receiving a wildcard. He lost in the first round to

Feliciano López Feliciano López Díaz-Guerra (; born 20 September 1981) is a Spanish professional tennis player. He achieved his career-high singles ranking of world No. 12 in March 2015 and doubles ranking of world No. 9 in November 2016.In 2005, López was t ...

. In August 2021, Tu won his first ITF title as an unranked qualifier at a M15 tournament in

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. He was competing in his first international event since June 2014. In September 2021, Tu won the singles and doubles titles at a tournament in Monastir, Tunisia. Tu ended the season with an ATP ranking of No. 521.

2022: Maiden Challenger title, top 200 debut

Tu lost in the first round of the

2022 Australian Open – Men's singles qualifying This article displays the qualifying draw for men's singles at the 2022 Australian Open. Seeds Qualifiers Lucky losers Draw First qualifier Second qualifier Third qualifier Fourth qualifier Fifth qualifier S ...

. He made his Grand Slam debut in doubles and reached the third round after receiving a wildcard with

Dane Sweeny Dane Sweeny (born 12 February 2001) is an Australian professional tennis player. Sweeny made his ATP Tour debut at the 2021 Great Ocean Road Open after receiving a wild card into the main draw. He has a career high ATP singles ranking of No. 2 ...

. In May, he scooped an ITF title in Cairo and finished runner-up at another ITF event at Monastir, winning 11 of his past 12 matches. He raised 55 places to a new career-high of world No. 342 on 9 May 2022. In July, Tu made his debut on the ATP Challenger Tour in Rome, Georgia, USA, where he lost to

Yasutaka Uchiyama is a Japanese tennis player playing on the ATP Challenger Tour. He achieved a career-high ATP singles ranking of world No. 78 on 04 November 2019 and doubles ranking of No. 102 on 20 August 2018. He has won eight ITF Futures singles titles and ...

. The following week in Indianapolis, as an alternate, he won his first Challenger match against

Michail Pervolarakis Michail Pervolarakis (born 6 June 1996) is a Cypriot-born Greek tennis player. Pervolarakis has a career high ATP singles ranking of World No. 366 achieved on 10 January 2022. He also has a career high ATP doubles ranking of World No. 157 achie ...

, but lost to

Dominik Koepfer Dominik Koepfer (born 29 April 1994) is a German professional tennis player. He has achieved a career-high ATP singles ranking of world No. 50 on 10 May 2021, and a doubles ranking of No. 92 on 14 February 2022. He played college tennis at Tulan ...

in the second round. He then made his first Challenger quarterfinal in

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, defeating seventh seed

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in the second round, before losing to

Enzo Couacaud Enzo Couacaud (born 1 March 1995) is a French professional tennis player. He has a career high singles ranking of world No. 155, which he achieved on 14 February 2022 and a doubles ranking of world No. 188 achieved on 8 March 2021. Career 2015: ...

. As a result he reached world No. 252 on 1 August 2022. In October, Tu made his first Challenger semifinal in

Seoul Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) as stated iArticle 103 of ...

after qualifying by beating Cho Se-hyuk and

Mukund Sasikumar Mukund Sasikumar (born 14 January 1997) is an Indian tennis player. Sasikumar has a career high ATP singles ranking of 229 achieved on 17 October 2019. He also has a career high ATP doubles ranking of 431 achieved on 3 February 2020. Sasikum ...

. In the main draw, he beat

Kaichi Uchida is a Japanese professional tennis player. Uchida has a career high ATP singles ranking of No. 155 achieved on 3 October 2022. He also has a career high ATP doubles ranking of No. 202 also achieved on 19 September 2022. Uchida has won 2 Chall ...

, fellow qualifier

Naoki Nakagawa is a Japanese tennis player. Nakagawa has a career high ATP singles ranking of world No, 531 achieved on 24 July 2017. He also has a career high ATP doubles ranking of world No. 726 achieved on 30. July 2018. As a junior, Nakagawa reached his ...

and the fifth seed, compatriot

Christopher O'Connell Christopher O'Connell (born 3 June 1994) is an Australian professional tennis player. He grew up on the Northern Beaches of Sydney. O'Connell reached a career high ATP singles ranking of World No. 78 on 28 November 2022 and a doubles ranking ...

. He defeated the sixth seed, compatriot James Duckworth in the semifinals to reach his first Challenger final. He defeated

Wu Yibing Wu Yibing (; ; born 14 October 1999) is a Chinese professional tennis player. He has a career-high singles ranking of No. 58, achieved on 13 February 2023, and a doubles ranking of No. 295, achieved on 23 April 2018. He is the first Chinese man ...

in straight sets in the final. As a result, he moved more than 100 positions up inside the top 200 in the rankings at world No. 190 on 17 October 2022.

ATP Challenger and ITF World Tour finals

Singles: 12 (9–3)

Doubles: 5 (4–1)

References

External links

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Li Tu
at

Tennis Australia Tennis Australia Limited is the governing body for Tennis in Australia. It is owned by Australian states and territories. The association organises national and international Tennis tournaments including the Australian Open, the Australian Open S ...

Li Tu
at Universal Tennis 1996 births Living people Australian male tennis players Tennis players from Adelaide Sportsmen from South Australia {{Australia-tennis-bio-stub