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.

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 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. In 2017, she formed a new partnership with Canadian Gabriela Dabrowski. Xu won the Miami Open and the Connecticut Open women's doubles with Dabrowski. She partnered with Dabrowski again in the US Open, with the pair reaching the quarterfinals. In 2018, the duo won the doubles competition at the Sydney International, 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

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and US Open. 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 with Gabriela Dabrowski 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 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 US Open with Nicole Melichar. In 2021, she competed at the Tokyo Olympics with Yang Zhaoxuan.

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 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