# Li Tu

Li Tu (born 27 May 1996) is an Australian tennis player who mainly competes on the ATP Challenger Tour. Tu has career-high rankings by the ATP of 178 in singles, reached on 4 November 2024, and 197 in doubles, achieved on 9 January 2023.

## Career
### 2011–2014: Pro debut and retirement

Tu made his ITF Futures debut in February 2011 at the Australia F2. He played four other tournaments, losing in the first round in all of them.
Tu competed in the 2012 Junior Davis Cup alongside Thanasi Kokkinakis, later working as a tennis coach prior to his debut on the senior tour.
In February 2014, he won his first match on ITF-level. In April 2014, Tu reached the quarterfinal of the Australia F5, his best result this level, but retired in June 2014.

### 2020–2021: Return, ATP and major debut, four ITF titles

In 2020, Tu was inspired to return to playing tennis and enjoyed success on the Australian UTR Pro Tennis Series.
Tu made his ATP Tour debut at the 2021 Murray River Open from where he received a wildcard into the singles main draw. Tu also made his Grand Slam debut at the 2021 Australian Open, after receiving a wildcard. He lost in the first round to Feliciano López.
In August 2021, Tu won his first ITF title as an unranked qualifier at a M15 tournament in Tunisia. He was competing in his first international event since June 2014. In September 2021, Tu won the singles and doubles titles at a tournament in Monastir, Tunisia.
Tu ended the 2021 season with an ATP ranking of No. 521.

### 2022: Maiden Challenger title, top 200 debut

Tu lost in the first round of the 2022 Australian Open – Men's singles qualifying. He made his Grand Slam tournament debut in doubles and reached the third round, after receiving a wildcard with Dane Sweeny.
In May, he scooped an ITF title in Cairo and finished runner-up at another ITF event at Monastir, winning 11 of his past 12 matches. He raised 55 places to a new career-high of world No. 342 on 9 May 2022.
In July, Tu made his debut on the ATP Challenger Tour in Rome, Georgia, where he lost to Yasutaka Uchiyama. The following week in Indianapolis, as an alternate, he won his first Challenger match against Michail Pervolarakis, but lost to Dominik Koepfer in the second round. He then made his first Challenger quarterfinal in Winnipeg, defeating seventh seed Gijs Brouwer in the second round, before losing to Enzo Couacaud. As a result he reached world No. 252 on 1 August 2022.
In October, Tu made his first Challenger semifinal in Seoul, after qualifying by beating Cho Se-hyuk and Mukund Sasikumar. In the main draw, he beat Kaichi Uchida, fellow qualifier Naoki Nakagawa and the fifth seed, compatriot Christopher O'Connell. He defeated the sixth seed, compatriot James Duckworth, in the semifinals to reach his first Challenger final where he defeated Wu Yibing in straight sets. As a result, he moved more than 100 positions up in the rankings, at world No. 190 on 17 October 2022.

### 2023: First ATP Tour win

In Newport, after qualifying for the main draw, Tu won his first match at ATP Tour level by beating Aleksandar Vukic in straight sets. This was also his first match win against a top 100 player.
He entered the Mallorca Championships, also as qualifier, but lost his first-round match against lucky loser Pavel Kotov.
He also entered the main draw at the Chengdu Open as a lucky loser and lost in the first round to Arthur Rinderknech.

### 2024: US Open debut

He qualified for his home tournament, the Brisbane International.
He again qualified for the Hall of Fame Open, losing to Eliot Spizzirri in the first round. He also qualified for the main draw of the US Open making his debut at this major. In the first round, he lost to third seed Carlos Alcaraz in four sets.

### 2025: Adelaide International second round

As a wildcard entrant, Tu defeated James Duckworth to reach the second round at the Adelaide International, where he lost to Benjamin Bonzi. Again given entry to the main draw as a wildcard at the Australian Open, he lost to 24th seed Jiří Lehečka in the first round.

## Performance timelines

Key :
| W | F | SF | QF | #R | RR | Q# | P# | DNQ | A | Z# | PO | G | S | B | NMS | NTI | P | NH |
| Tournament | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | SR | W–L |
| Grand Slam tournaments ||||||||
| Australian Open | 1R | Q1 | Q2 | Q1 | 1R | 0 / 2 | 0–2 |
| French Open | A | A | Q1 | Q2 | | 0 / 0 | 0–0 |
| Wimbledon | A | A | A | Q2 | | 0 / 0 | 0–0 |
| US Open | A | A | A | 1R | | 0 / 1 | 0–1 |
| Win–loss | 0–1 | 0–0 | 0–0 | 0–1 | 0–1 | 0 / 3 | 0–3 |
| ATP Tour Masters 1000 ||||||||
| Shanghai Masters | NH | NH | Q2 | 1R | | 0 / 1 | 0–1 |
| Win–loss | 0–1 | 0–0 | 0–0 | 0–1 | 0–0 | 0 / 1 | 0–1 |

## Personal life

Tu was born in Adelaide to Chinese immigrant parents. His mother, Yu Ping Zheng, died in 2022.

## ATP Challenger Tour finals
### Singles: 3 (1 title, 2 runner-up)

* Legend
* ATP Challenger Tour (1–2)
| Result | W–L | Date | Tournament | Tier | Surface | Opponent | Score |
| Win | 1–0 | Oct 2022 | Seoul, South Korea | Challenger | Hard | Wu Yibing | 7–6$^{(7–5)}$, 6–4 |
| Loss | 1–1 | Jul 2024 | Lexington, USA | Challenger | Hard | João Fonseca | 1–6, 4–6 |
| Loss | 1–2 | Nov 2024 | Yokohama, Japan | Challenger | Hard | Yuta Shimizu | 7–6$^{(7–4)}$, 4–6, 2–6 |

### Doubles: 1 (title)

* Legend
* ATP Challenger Tour (1–0)
| Result | W–L | Date | Tournament | Tier | Surface | Partner | Opponents | Score |
| Win | 1–0 | Jul 2024 | Chicago, USA | Challenger | Hard | Luke Saville | Mac Kiger Benjamin Sigouin | 6–4, 3–6, [10–3] |

## ITF World Tennis Tour finals
### Singles: 13 (9 titles, 4 runner-ups)

* Legend
* ITF WTT (9–4)
* Finals by surface
* Hard (8–4)
* Clay (1–0)
| Result | W–L | Date | Tournament | Tier | Surface | Opponent | Score |
| Win | 1–0 | Aug 2021 | M15 Monastir, Tunisia | WTT | Hard | Mateo Nicolás Martínez | 6–1, 6–1 |
| Win | 2–0 | Sep 2021 | M15 Monastir, Tunisia | WTT | Hard | Gabriel Décamps | 6–2, 6–1 |
| Win | 3–0 | Sep 2021 | M15 Monastir, Tunisia | WTT | Hard | Ryota Tanuma | 3–6, 6–1, 6–2 |
| Win | 4–0 | Nov 2021 | M25 Saint-Dizier, France | WTT | Hard (i) | Dane Sweeny | 1–6, 6–1, 6–4 |
| Win | 5–0 | Feb 2022 | M25 Bendigo, Australia | WTT | Hard | Andrew Harris | 6–3, 6–1 |
| Win | 6–0 | May 2022 | M25 Cairo, Egypt | WTT | Clay | Colin Sinclair | 6–4, 3–6, 6–4 |
| Loss | 6–1 | May 2022 | M15 Monastir, Tunisia | WTT | Hard | Skander Mansouri | 4–6, 2–6 |
| Win | 7–1 | May 2022 | M25 Monastir, Tunisia | WTT | Hard | Skander Mansouri | 6–7$^{(3–7)}$, 6–4, 7–6$^{(7–4)}$ |
| Loss | 7–2 | Jul 2022 | M15 Waco, Texas, USA | WTT | Hard | Adam Walton | 5–7, 6–0, 1–6 |
| Win | 8–2 | Apr 2023 | M15 Monastir, Tunisia | WTT | Hard | Daniel Rodrigues | 3–6, 6–4, 6–4 |
| Loss | 8–3 | Apr 2023 | M15 Monastir, Tunisia | WTT | Hard | Duarte Vale | 3–6, 0–3, ret. |
| Loss | 8–4 | Feb 2024 | M25 Traralgon, Australia | WTT | Hard | Omar Jasika | 6–7$^{(1–7)}$, 2–6 |
| Win | 9–4 | Mar 2024 | M25 Traralgon, Australia | WTT | Hard | Alex Bolt | 6–4, 6–2 |

### Doubles: 5 (4 titles, 1 runner-up)

* Legend
* ITF WTT (4–1)
* Finals by surface
* Hard (3–1)
* Clay (1–0)
| Result | W–L | Date | Tournament | Tier | Surface | Partner | Opponents | Score |
| Win | 1–0 | Aug 2021 | M15 Monastir, Tunisia | WTT | Hard | Jeremy Beale | August Holmgren Johannes Ingildsen | 6–4, 6–2 |
| Win | 2–0 | Sep 2021 | M15 Monastir, Tunisia | WTT | Hard | Ajeet Rai | Martin Breysach Lilian Marmousez | 6–0, 6–4 |
| Win | 3–0 | Feb 2022 | M25 Canberra, Australia | WTT | Hard | Dane Sweeny | Jayden Court David Hough | 6–3, 7–5 |
| Loss | 3–1 | Mar 2022 | M25 Bendigo, Australia | WTT | Hard | Dane Sweeny | Akira Santillan Philip Sekulic | 5–7, 7–6, [7–10] |
| Win | 4–1 | Mar 2022 | M25 Canberra, Australia | WTT | Clay | Dane Sweeny | Matthew Romios Eric Vanshelboim | 7–6, 3–6, [10–7] |