Xu Yifan (; ; born 8 August 1988), nicknamed Julie, is a Chinese professional

tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

player who specializes in doubles. She reached a career-high

ranking A ranking is a relationship between a set of items, often recorded in a list, such that, for any two items, the first is either "ranked higher than", "ranked lower than", or "ranked equal to" the second. In mathematics, this is known as a weak ...

of No. 7 in doubles, on 13 January 2020. On 13 July 2015, she peaked at No. 148 in the singles rankings.

Career

2004–2013: Maiden ITF title

Xu made her debut playing on the

ITF Women's Circuit The ITF Women's World Tennis Tour, previously known as the ITF Women's Circuit, is a series of professional tennis tournaments run by the International Tennis Federation for female professional tennis players. History It serves as a developmenta ...

in China. She won her first doubles title with Xia Huan in 2006. She was a finalist in women's doubles at the

2007 2007 was designated as the International Heliophysical Year and the International Polar Year. Events January * January 1 **Bulgaria and Romania 2007 enlargement of the European Union, join the European Union, while Slovenia joins the Eur ...

and 2008 China Open in Beijing with

Han Xinyun Han Xinyun (; ; born 30 May 1990), also known as Monica Han, is an inactive Chinese tennis player. Han has won three doubles titles on the WTA Tour, as well as one doubles title on the WTA Challenger Tour. She also has won 35 titles (9 in sin ...

2014–2016: Australian Open semifinalist, WTA Elite trophy champion

She was a quarterfinalist at the 2014 US Open in women's doubles with

Zarina Diyas Zarina Diyas (; ; born 18 October 1993) is a Kazakh professional tennis player. She has been WTA rankings, ranked as high as No. 31 by the Women's Tennis Association, WTA. Diyas has won one singles title on the WTA Tour, at the 2017 Japan Women' ...

. She reached the semifinals at the

2016 Australian Open The 2016 Australian Open was a List of tennis tournaments, tennis tournament that took place at Melbourne Park between 18 and 31 January 2016. It was the 104th edition of the Australian Open, and the first Grand Slam (tennis), Grand Slam tourname ...

and was a quarterfinalist at the

2016 French Open The 2016 French Open was a tennis tournament played on outdoor clay courts. It was the 115th edition (86th as a Grand Slam) of the French Open and the second Grand Slam event of the year. It took place at the Stade Roland Garros from 22 May to 5 ...

in women's doubles with

Zheng Saisai Zheng Saisai or Zheng Sai-Sai (; born 5 February 1994) is a Chinese tennis player. She has a career-high singles ranking of world No. 34, achieved on 2 March 2020, and a doubles ranking of No. 15, achieved on 11 July 2016. In her career, she wo ...

2017–2019: Wimbledon doubles final

She was also a quarterfinalist in doubles at the

Australian Open The Australian Open (stylized ΛO) is a tennis tournament organised by Tennis Australia annually at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Victoria (state), Victoria, Australia. It is chronologically the first of the four Grand Slam (tennis), Grand Sl ...

in 2017 with

Raquel Atawo Raquel Atawo (née Kops-Jones; born December 8, 1982) is an American former professional tennis player, who is currently the head woman's tennis coach for the Washington State Cougars. She is primarily a doubles specialist, winning 18 WTA doub ...

. In 2017, she formed a new partnership with Canadian

Gabriela Dabrowski Gabriela "Gaby" Dabrowski (; , ; born April 1, 1992) is a Canadian professional tennis player. She reached her career-high doubles ranking of world No. 3 on 15 July 2024. A three-time Grand Slam champion, she won the 2023 US Open doubles title, ...

. Xu won the Miami Open and the Connecticut Open women's doubles with Dabrowski. She partnered with Dabrowski again in the

US Open U.S. Open or US Open are open championship sporting tournaments that are hosted in the United States and in which anyone, especially amateur and professional, or American and non-American, may compete. The term may also be applied to non-sporting ev ...

, with the pair reaching the quarterfinals. In 2018, the duo won the doubles competition at the

Sydney International The Sydney International (formerly known as the Championship of New South Wales and New South Wales Open, with various title sponsors), formerly sponsored as the Apia International Sydney from 2012 to 2017, was a professional tennis tournament ...

, and then reached the quarterfinals in

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

, just like 2019 at the

French Open The French Open (), also known as Roland-Garros (), is a tennis tournament organized by the French Tennis Federation annually at Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France. It is chronologically the second of the four Grand Slam (tennis), Grand Slam ...

and

. The biggest achievement of the Canadian/Chinese pair was reaching the final of the

2019 Wimbledon Championships The 2019 Wimbledon Championships was a Grand Slam (tennis), Grand Slam tennis tournament that took place at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon, London, United Kingdom. The main tournament began on Monday 1 July 2019 and fi ...

, losing to Barbora Strycova and

Hsieh Su-wei Hsieh Su-wei (; ; born 4 January 1986) is a Taiwanese professional tennis player. A former List of WTA number 1 ranked doubles tennis players, world No. 1 in Doubles tennis, doubles with nine Grand Slam (tennis), Grand Slam titles, she is rega ...

. She made the quarterfinals at the

2018 WTA Finals The 2018 WTA Finals, also known by its sponsored name BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore, was a women's tennis tournament held in Kallang, Singapore. It was the 48th edition of the singles event and the 43rd edition of the doubles competition. Eight ...

with

for a second consecutive year having done so also in

2017 2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations General Assembly. Events January * January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the ...

. She also qualified for the

2019 WTA Finals The 2019 WTA Finals, also known by its sponsored name Shiseido WTA Finals Shenzhen, was a women's tennis tournament held in Shenzhen, China. It was the 49th edition of the singles event and the 44th edition of the doubles competition. The tourname ...

for a third year in a row.

2020–2021: US Open and WTA 1000 finals, world No. 7 in doubles

She reached the finals of the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati and the

with

Nicole Melichar Nicole Melichar-Martinez (née Melichar; , ; born July 29, 1993) is an American professional tennis player who specializes in doubles. On 3 July 2023, she peaked at No. 6 in the WTA doubles rankings. Melichar has won fifteen doubles titles on the ...

. In 2021, she competed at the

Tokyo Olympics Tokyo Olympics may refer to: * 1940 Summer Olympics, Games of the XII Olympiad, cancelled due to World War II * 1964 Summer Olympics, Games of the XVIII Olympiad * 2020 Summer Olympics The officially the and officially branded as were an ...

with

Yang Zhaoxuan Yang Zhaoxuan (; ; born 11 February 1995) is a Chinese tennis player. She reached her best WTA doubles ranking of world No. 9 on 30 January 2023. Yang has won seven doubles titles on the WTA Tour and one WTA Challenger doubles title. In Sept ...

2022: Second WTA 1000 title, French Open quarterfinal

In Indian Wells, she won the second WTA 1000 title of her career in doubles, partnering with Yang Zhaoxuan. They also took the title at the

Silicon Valley Classic The Silicon Valley Classic was a tennis tournament on the WTA Tour held on the campus of San Jose State University in San Jose, California. Started in 1971, the tournament was the oldest women's-only tournament in the world and was played on outdoo ...

She qualified for her fourth 2022 WTA Finals with a different partner, compatriot Yang Zhaoxuan.

Performance timeline

Doubles

Grand Slam tournament finals

Doubles: 2 (2 runner-ups)

Mixed: 1 (runner-up)

Other significant finals

WTA 1000 tournaments

Doubles: 6 (2 titles, 4 runner-ups)

WTA Elite Trophy

Doubles: 1 (title)

WTA Tour finals

Doubles: 25 (14 titles, 11 runner-ups)

WTA Challenger finals

Doubles: 2 (1 title, 1 runner-up)

ITF Circuit finals

Singles (1–5)

Doubles (21–12)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Xu, Yifan 1988 births Living people Tennis players from Tianjin Chinese female tennis players Tennis players at the 2016 Summer Olympics Olympic tennis players for China Tennis players at the 2018 Asian Games Medalists at the 2018 Asian Games Asian Games medalists in tennis Asian Games gold medalists for China Tennis players at the 2020 Summer Olympics 21st-century Chinese sportswomen