Women’s singles struggle while doubles remain strong; Chinese stars deliver seven titles in 2025

Last week, the various tour events concluded. At the WTA250 Jiujiang Open, Russia’s Blinkova defeated 17-year-old Austrian wildcard Tagger 6-3, 6-3, ending a three-year title drought and securing her second career championship.

With this Jiujiang title, Blinkova’s world ranking soared from 95th to 63rd. At the award ceremony, she even spoke some Chinese; although her pronunciation wasn’t perfect, her sincere effort won her many fans.

The women’s singles champion at the WTA250 Hong Kong tournament was Canadian rising star Mboko, who battled Buksha in a three-set final, finishing 7-5, 6-7, 6-2. This marked Mboko’s second tour-level title after Montreal this year.

The WTA250 Chennai title went to Indonesian newcomer Zeng Limi, whose ranking jumped from over 400 at the start of the year to 53rd this week. After claiming her first career title, she became the first Indonesian to win a WTA singles championship since Huang Yilin at Pattaya in 2002.

Also concluding last week was a high-level men’s event: Sinner won the ATP1000 Paris Masters singles final in 1 hour and 49 minutes, defeating Aliassime 6-4, 7-6 in straight sets to claim his fifth Masters title.

With that, the 2025 WTA professional tour has mostly wrapped up. Comparing this year’s overall performance of Chinese female players to last year, there was a decline, especially since no singles titles were won at tour-level events.

However, as a traditional strength for Chinese players, the doubles court saw multiple Chinese stars crowned champions. Notably, Guo Hanyu and Panova won titles at the WTA500 Adelaide and WTA500 Bad Homburg tournaments, with Guo being one of the standout Chinese players this season.

It’s worth mentioning that Guo Hanyu, who has been impressive in doubles, also made a breakthrough in singles. Her current singles ranking is around 169, making her the sixth-ranked Chinese female player this week.

Jiang Xinyu partnered with Wu Fangxian to win doubles titles at the WTA250 Auckland and WTA250 Hobart events. Additionally, Jiang teamed up with Wang Yafan to claim the doubles crown at last week’s Hong Kong tournament. With three titles, Jiang Xinyu leads all Chinese female players in tour wins for the 2025 season.

Veteran Zhang Shuai maintained steady form this season, peaking in singles towards the end of the year. She also won the WTA500 Washington doubles title alongside Townsend, while Yuan Yue and Blinkova took the WTA250 Austin doubles trophy.

Looking forward, we hope more Chinese players will achieve great results on the professional circuit in the new 2026 season!(Source: Tennis Home, Author: Barbie)