“Rafa is my idol,” says Zhuoxuan Bai. “I took a photo with him at the 2020 Australian Open and I felt my dream finally came true! He has always inspired me.”

Bai, a 19-year-old emerging tennis talent from China, is hardly alone with that first statement. Nor is she in much of a minority with her second given the sea of people who have posed for a photo with Nadal, such is the 20-time Grand Slam champion’s popularity across the world.

But where Bai is rather more unique to others is that, like Rafa, she knows the feeling of achieving near-total dominance on a tennis court, albeit a lot further down the rungs of professional tennis on the ITF World Tennis Tour.

Since pitching up in Sharm El Sheikh in early October for a run of W15 tournaments in the Egyptian coastal city, Bai has won 26 matches and lost just twice, claiming her first five professional singles titles and throwing in two doubles crowns and two further runner-up finishes for good measure.

She is one of 12 women to have won over 25 matches on a hard court at ITF tournaments this year, but the only one to achieve the feat in such a concentrated six-week spell. Along with Belarusian Yuliya Hatouka, she’s also the only one of that group to have a single digit loss count this season.

A former junior world No. 9 and semi-finalist in the girls’ singles at the 2020 Australian Open, Bai had hoped to achieve a fast transition to the professional game last year, but those aspirations were waylaid by the Covid-19 pandemic.

"Covid did make me enter the professional circuit later but it also gave me more time to concentrate on training in Shenzhen"

“I originally planned to shift my focus to the ITF pro events after the 2020 Australian Open,” said Bai via a translator (owing to her raw but improving English).

“However, due to the pandemic, I finally decided to return to China. At that time, I didn’t have that much chance to improve my ranking. Covid did make me enter the professional circuit later but it also gave me more time to concentrate on training in Shenzhen, so there are always positive effects. In that time, I think my technique and fitness level both improved.”

Bai, who trains at the Gemdale Tennis Academy in Shenzhen, prides herself on her consistency and a powerful engine that allows her to stick around in long, arduous rallies.

Her desire to always be the last one standing (another trait of her hero) explains her title haul in Egypt, and bodes well for the future as she seeks to add further layers to her game.

“I’m trying to pay more attention to tactics and coming up with ideas and finding solutions on the court,” she admits. “I’ve been working on this part a lot recently.

“When I watch the top players' matches, I am also trying to understand everyone's different strategy and ideas. I hope I can use this to enrich my game.”

Bai grew up in a healthy ‘tennis atmosphere’ (“everyone in my family can play a little bit of tennis, including my Grandma,” she says), but it was her Uncle, the most proficient player of the family, who first put a racket in her hand. After watching the rest of her family play regularly in their free time as a young child, Bai gradually became more interested in the sport and began practicing more seriously herself.

"Everyone in my family can play a little bit of tennis, including my Grandma"

That turned into an impressive junior career that took in six ITF junior titles during the 2019 season, culminating in a run to the semi-finals of the girls’ event at the 2020 Australian Open, where only eventual champion and rising star Victoria Jimenez Kasintseva could halt her charge. She peaked at No. 9 in the junior rankings the following week.

“The top 10 junior ranking was very important to me and I was happy when I saw that number,” she reflects. “I didn’t have a special feeling because I know I’m still going to have a long way to go in my pro career, but it was a great milestone. It brought me more confidence and it made me believe that I can go further.”

Bai, who has won 28 of the 35 professional matches she has contested on the ITF World Tennis Tour, already feels that her game has moved on since her junior days.

“When I was a junior, I was not as good at intense long rallies and battles as I am now,” she says. “I think my junior career allowed me to discover more about myself on court, that experience made me gradually find the direction of my own game.”

"I think my junior career allowed me to discover more about myself on court"

With that direction now clear and with Bai producing the kind of form that will inevitably propel her up the rankings, it must be tempting to continue playing as many tournaments as possible. But, careful not to get carried away, the current world No. 731 retains a pragmatic approach.

“This year my schedule has only one tour left – the ITF W15 event in Cairo,” she reveals. “After that I will return to China and I will spend some time with family, then go to Shenzhen to do the winter training to prepare for the next season.

“Of course, in the long-term, I hope that my ranking can be higher so I can try to participate in higher-level events.”

It’s an uncertain road to the upper echelons of professional tennis, but for Zhuoxuan Bai, all signs suggest it might just be a matter of time.