A wave of five consecutive wins, in 2025, Cui Jie won the championship for the first time

Since Shang Juncheng's successful breakthrough in the Indian Wells Masters qualifying tournament in 2022, Chinese men's tennis has made a series of breakthroughs in tennis tournaments at all levels in more than three years. As a result, more and more fans have begun to pay attention to Chinese men's tennis.

Unfortunately, Chinese men's tennis players, ranked outside the top 200, remain unnoticed. In fact, many times, these players also have their own wonderful. This year, veteran Bai Yan broke into the final of the Baotou Hope Tournament and qualified for the Grand Slam qualifying tournament after five years. On the same day, Sun Fajing defeated his opponent in straight sets in the final of the Wuxi Challenger to win his first career Challenger title and qualify for the Grand Slam qualifiers. And last week, another Chinese men's tennis player won his first title since the 2025 season, so who is this player? Where did he win the title? Who are the opponents he has defeated? Today, let this article take you to take a look.

This player is Cui Jie, who reached the first Hope Tournament final of his career back in 2018, however, in the five years since, despite reaching the Hope Finals many times, Cui Jie has failed to win the championship. This experience made him deeply affected and at the same time made him work harder. In the 2023 season, he finally won the first hope championship of his career in Yinchuan, and in the final, Cui Jie's opponent was compatriot Sun Fajing.

In the 2024 season, Cui Jie not only won two Hope Tournament titles, but also reached the semifinals of the first Challenge Tournament of his career, and he has begun to slowly attract the attention of fans as he climbs the world rankings. However, this season ended last week, despite reaching the first Challenger final of his career at the beginning of the year. However, Cui Jie did nothing in the Hope Tournament, and his best record was only to reach the semi-finals.

Last week, Cui Jie defeated Spain's M Martinez in the first round of the fourth round of the Lu'an Hope Tournament and successfully advanced. In the second round, facing his compatriot Zhao Lingxi, who was ranked more than 1,000 times lower than himself, many fans thought that Cui Jie would defeat his opponent bloodlessly. But in this match, Zhao Lingxi unexpectedly won the first set 6:4. Fortunately, in the subsequent game, Cui Jie adjusted his state, won two sets in a row, reversed and defeated his opponent, and reached the quarterfinals.

In the quarterfinals, facing the challenge of Japan's Yuta Kikuchi, Cui Jie did not give his opponent a chance, ending the battle with two 6:4, and reached the semifinals of the Hope Tournament for the second time in the 2025 season. His opponent in the semi-finals was Japan's Sun Yamanaka. In the process of qualifying, this player has defeated the third seed and compatriot Isomura Shi, and the sixth seed of the tournament, the Czech Republic's D Palan, and his strength should not be underestimated.

In this match, Cui Jie was forced into a tie-break by his opponent in the first set, and failed to resist the opponent's offensive in the tie-break, losing a set first. It is worth mentioning that this was the first set victory that Yamanaka Sun snatched in the hands of Cui Jie. In the following game, Cui Jie counterattacked, won two sets in a row, and only let the Yamanaka Sun win one game. After his victory, he reached the final of his first Hope Tournament of the 2025 season, and he was close to the title.

In the final, Choi Jie swept South Korea's Shin Woo-bin to win his first Hope Championship of the 2025 season. And so, for three seasons in a row, he won the Hope Race. So, in the future, will Cui Jie have a more eye-catching performance? Let's wait and see.(Source: Tennis Home Author: Yixin Jushi)