Bai triple-digit ranking, hello top 100: Chinese star continues rise

Zhuoxuan Bai’s steady ascent in the women’s game gathered pace this weekend after she leapt into the world’s Top 100 with victory at W100 Takasaki - her second at the ITF World Tennis Tour’s highest level in a month - on Sunday.

The 21-year-old from China has been a burgeoning prospect at ITF level for some time, ever since a blazing run at the back end of the 2021 season that saw her claim her first five professional singles titles in the space of six weeks at W15 tournaments in Sharm El Sheikh.

This year though, with a higher ranking and access to more prestigious events, Bai - who prides herself on her consistency and a powerful engine like her idol, Rafael Nadal - has taken her game up another notch.

She qualified for - and won a match at - her first Grand Slam at Wimbledon in July, has contested five WTA events, and has now seized a double digit ranking for the first time at No. 86 after winning two of the biggest events on offer in ITF women’s competition in quick succession.

And she did so with back-to-back victories over compatriot Yuan Yue, beating the 25-year-old in straights sets at both W100 Shenzhen in October, and now W100 Takasaki on Sunday, courtesy of a 6-2 6-3 triumph.

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

Now 21, she’s certainly making up for lost time.

Meanwhile, Viktoriya Tomova won the other W100 title on offer on the ITF World Tennis Tour this weekend, defeating Jacqueline Cristian 7-5 6-3 for the second-biggest title of her career at W100 Valencia.

It comes three months after the 28-year-old Bulgarian achieved her biggest win to date at the WTA 125 event in Chicago.

There were also notable triumphs this weekend for 18-year-old Taylah Preston, who won her biggest title yet - and fourth overall - on home soil at W60 Preston, and Fruhvirtova, won collected her seventh title of the year at W40 Guadalajara.

The 16-year-old Czech is now just won win shy of the impressive tally of eight titles (all at W25 level) that she managed last year.

In a mark of her continued progress, the teenage protégé’s victories this year have taken in one W60 title, four at W40 level and two W25 crowns.

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