Blossoming youth on the sports stage, a comprehensive review of China's mainland U18 rising tennis stars!

On the evening of December 14th Beijing time, 15-year-old Chinese talent Sun Xinran triumphed at the highly respected junior tennis event—the Orange Bowl J500, making history as the first Chinese to win the U18 singles championship. The junior tennis scene in China is rich with gifted young players, so let’s review the top U18 female prospects from mainland China!

Sun Xinran

Date of Birth: 2010-07-23

WTA Singles Ranking: No. 842 (Career-high No. 833)

Junior Singles Ranking: No. 15 (Career-high No. 15)

Best Junior Grand Slam Result: Round of 16

Junior Match Record: 97 wins / 22 losses

The new Orange Bowl U18 singles champion Sun Xinran began competing in junior Grand Slams this year, reaching the round of 16 at the US Open. Her 82% win rate on the junior circuit tops all Chinese players. After reaching a career-high junior world ranking of No. 15 this week, she has achieved three key goals: winning a lower-tier professional title, breaking into the top 20 world rankings, and securing her first Grand Slam win.

Sun Xinran also impressed on the professional circuit this year. In late October, she won back-to-back singles titles at two consecutive W15 events in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, with a ten-match winning streak. At just 15 years and 95 days old, she became the youngest Chinese player ever to win a professional title. Next year, she aims to challenge for titles at higher-level professional events.

Zhu Chenting

Date of Birth: 2007-09-13

WTA Singles Ranking: No. 591 (Career-high No. 588)

Junior Singles Ranking: - (Career-high No. 1410)

Best Junior Grand Slam Result: -

Junior Match Record: 11 wins / 4 losses

Zhu Chenting currently holds the highest WTA world ranking among mainland China’s U18 female players. Rarely competing in junior events, she has had a fruitful season on the professional circuit. At the W15 Ma’anshan tournament in June, Zhu started from the qualifiers and powered through seven consecutive wins to claim her first title, becoming the first Chinese player born after 2007 to win a professional singles championship. She also finished runner-up in two other W15 singles events this year.

Zhu began playing tennis at age five and joined China’s national youth team in 2019. Her talent was discovered by Chinese tennis veteran Xia Jiaping. This season, she received a WTA1000 China Open singles qualifying wildcard and made her WTA singles and doubles main draw debut at the WTA250 Jiujiang event held in her hometown.

Zhang Ruien

Date of Birth: 2008-04-27

WTA Singles Ranking: No. 672 (Career-high No. 638)

Junior Singles Ranking: No. 13 (Career-high No. 13)

Best Junior Grand Slam Result: Round of 16

Junior Match Record: 59 wins / 25 losses

Zhang Ruien is currently the highest-ranked junior player from mainland China in the U18 category. This season marked her debut in junior Grand Slams, successfully making her main draw debut in all four majors, reaching the round of 16 at Roland Garros and round of 32 at Wimbledon. During the Chinese season, she earned wildcards into the WTA1000 China Open singles and doubles main draws, marking her first WTA main draw appearances, and secured a valuable qualifying win at the WTA125 Jinan event.

Notably, Zhang led the Beijing team to the youth women’s team championship at the National Games in November. In the adult women’s singles, she defeated 11th seed Lu Jiajing and Hong Kong’s Hu Kaching to reach the round of 16, and fought hard to take a set against Wang Yafan in the quarterfinals.

Qu Yihan

Date of Birth: 2009-03-22

WTA Singles Ranking: No. 1474 (Career-high No. 1459)

Junior Singles Ranking: No. 39 (Career-high No. 32)

Best Junior Grand Slam Result: Round of 64

Junior Match Record: 88 wins / 29 losses

Qu Yihan made a splash at this year’s National Games, pulling off a major upset in the first round by defeating 4th seed Guo Hanyu in a tough three-set match, 6-7(4), 6-2, 7-6(5), eventually reaching the round of 16. At the WTA500 Ningbo event, Qu won a set against German player Kopatsch in the qualifying round, having entered via wildcard.

Shao Yushan (Junior ranking No. 27)

Wang Yuhan (Junior ranking No. 75)

Wei Zhangqian (Junior ranking No. 77)

Statistics show that currently there are 14 U18 female players from mainland China with WTA world rankings, 8 of whom are ranked within the top 1000. Among them are players like Wang Yuhan and Wei Zhangqian, who competed in junior Grand Slams this year, while Ye Shiyu has already won a professional W15 singles title. Additionally, Shao Yushan, the junior singles runner-up at this year’s China Open, Wu Ruqi who won a main draw match at the WTA125 Jingshan event, and Wang Xiaotong, last year’s Orange Bowl U16 singles champion, are all poised to become shining stars in the tennis world.

Youth is at its peak; these young U18 players have either already made their mark in junior competitions or started stepping into adult tournaments. With accumulating experience in major events and continuous refinement of their skills and tactics, this fresh wave of Chinese tennis talent will become the backbone of Chinese women's tennis in the future, writing new chapters of success.

(Text and editing by: Dato, Photos by: Li Jianyi)