After a five-match winning streak, Xu Shilin has once again reached the semifinals of the Hope Tournament after three months.

Returning to competition is never an easy task. Kvitova chose to retire after the US Open due to disappointing results since her comeback. Similarly, Naomi Osaka, a former four-time Grand Slam champion from Japan, has struggled to regain her form after returning. For this reason, we should often show respect to those athletes who dare to make a comeback. This week, a Chinese player who returned this year achieved a five-match winning streak and reached the semifinals of the Hope Tournament for the second time this year. So, who is this Chinese player? Let's find out in this article.

This Chinese player is Xu Shilin, who became the world junior number one back in 2014. Notably, she was also the first Chinese female tennis player to achieve this ranking. In 2015, she appeared as the top seed at the Australian Open junior tournament, but unfortunately, she was eliminated in the round of 16 and did not win the championship. After entering the professional circuit, she won titles in both the Hope and Challenge tournaments, garnering high expectations from many fans.

However, for various reasons, Xu Shilin did not compete on the tennis circuit for two full years after 2022. This situation caused her points and world ranking to vanish. In 2025, driven by her passion, Xu Shilin returned to the tennis court. However, her comeback was not smooth. There was even a period when she faced a three-match losing streak. Fortunately, Xu Shilin persevered through these challenges. In mid-April, at the Hope Tournament held in Serbia, she started from the qualifiers and achieved a five-match winning streak, marking her first entry into the semifinals of the Hope Tournament this year.

This week, Xu Shilin appeared at the Florence Hope Tournament held in the United States. Due to her low world ranking, she had to start from the qualifiers. In the first round of the qualifiers, Xu Shilin delivered a bagel, defeating American player F Pate and advancing smoothly. In the final round of the qualifiers, she faced American player A Nguyen, where she won decisively and emerged from the qualifiers to enter the main draw. In the first round of the main draw, Xu Shilin's opponent was the eighth seed, American player Ulhobo. Given that her world ranking was significantly lower than Xu Shilin's, not many people expected her to advance.

However, in this match, Xu Shilin performed exceptionally well, allowing her opponent to win only six games throughout the match. After a dominant victory, Xu Shilin advanced smoothly. Notably, this was also her first victory over a player ranked within the top 430 since her comeback. In the second round, facing American player K Allen, who also advanced from the qualifiers, Xu Shilin swept her opponent, reaching the quarterfinals of the Hope Tournament for the fifth time this year.

In the quarterfinals, during the match against American player J Defalco, Xu Shilin was taken to a tiebreak in the first set. In the tiebreak, she lost the first point, putting her in a precarious position. Fortunately, in the subsequent matches, she came back to win two sets in a row, defeating her opponent and reaching the semifinals of the Hope Tournament for the second time this year after a gap of over three months.

In the semifinals, Xu Shilin's opponent was American player A Honer, who was competing with a wildcard. Having already defeated five American players, can she go even further? Stay tuned! That's the tennis story for today; more to come tomorrow.(Source: Tennis Home, Author: Yixin Jushi)