From 2024 to 2025, from Seoul to Gwangju, it will be difficult to win the main round of the Zhouyi-Japan-Korea Challenge

Due to the obvious improvement of Chinese men's tennis since 2022, many Chinese fans are not satisfied with the recent performance of Chinese men's tennis players. However, they ignored that so far, there are still only four active Chinese men's tennis players who can win the Challenge Championship, Zhang Zhizhen, Wu Yixuan, Shang Juncheng, and Buyun Chaoket, and Bai Yan, a veteran, has not yet been able to reach the Challenge Finals. Of the four Chinese men's tennis players who appeared in the first round of the Busan Challenger qualifying tournament last week, none of them were able to advance. And this week, a Chinese teenager told us with his own experience that the foundation of Chinese men's tennis is still very weak, and they actually have a lot of room for improvement. So, who is this Chinese youngster? What happened to him? Today, let the humble article take you to see it.

That player is Zhou Yi, who is the same age as Shang Juncheng, who reached the semi-finals of the 2023 Australian Open junior tournament, and that year, he also reached the quarterfinals of his first career Challenger tournament at the Zhuhai Challenger. However, due to his young age, Zhou Yi also suffered six consecutive defeats this season.

In the 2024 season, after winning two Hope Tournament titles and the first Career Masters victory, Zhou Yi came to the Seoul Challenger Qualifying Tournament. He made it to the main draw after beating off South Korea's Jeong Y and Japan's Shishi Isomura. However, in the first round of the main event, Zhou Yi was defeated by the French player Escofier, who had won the challenge championship, and missed the first victory in the Japan-Korea Challenge. It is worth mentioning that this is also Zhou Yi's first trip to the Japan-Korea Challenge.

A few days later, Zhou Yi defeated Japan's Yuhei Kono and Great Britain's Brody in the Matsuyama Challenger qualifying round to step into the main draw again. Unfortunately, he was unable to maintain his advantage in the good situation of the first city, and was reversed by Japan's Yosuke Mianguan, who had just won consecutive Masters tournaments, in two sets in a row, and was shocked out.

After that, in the Kobe and Busan Challenge, Zhou Yi failed in the first round of the qualifying round and failed to advance. At the Gwangju Challenge this week, Chinese players such as Cui Jie, Sun Fajing, and Bai Yan were eliminated one after another in the qualifying round, and Zhou Yi has become the only Chinese men's tennis player who is still on the main draw table.

In the first round, his opponent was Australia's Yasika. Back in 2016, Iasika won his first career Grand Slam victory, which speaks volumes about his quality. In the first set, both men held serve until they entered a tie-break at 6-6. The tie-break was won by the more experienced and better Yasika to win the first set. Fortunately, Zhou Yi let go of Yibo in the second set, pulled back a set, and dragged the game into the deciding set. Unfortunately, in the deciding set, he was unable to withstand Iasika's attack, winning only two games and eventually losing the match. Five trips to the Japan-Korea Challenger, two stops in the first round of qualifying, and three times in the first round of the main draw against the opponent to the deciding set, but never able to win the main draw. So far, Zhou Yi is still difficult to win in the main match of the Japan-Korea Challenger. Perhaps, in future competitions, he will be able to break this cycle. Let's bless this player here.

Sports is a river and lake, and tennis is also a river and lake. I hope my article can bring some fresh information to all fans. Whether it's compliments or criticisms, maybe it's just to be able to get me far. That's it for today, and it continues tomorrow.(Source: Tennis Home Author: Yixin Jushi)