The second week of January kicks off, with five major questions awaiting answers from Chinese players.

2026 has now moved into its third week. Last week, "China's Sharapova" Wang Xinyu made her career-first hard-court tour final; Guo Hanyu, Xu Yifan, and Yang Zhaoxuan claimed both the championship and runner-up in the WTA250 Auckland Open women's doubles; although Shang Juncheng exited in the ATP250 Hong Kong quarterfinals, he still achieved the best early-season result for Chinese male tennis players in 2026. This week, tournaments including the tour, challenger, and futures events will continue. Consequently, five key questions await Chinese players’ responses. So, what exactly are these questions? Today, this article will take you through them.

After Wang Xinyu’s strong performance at the WTA250 Auckland event, she will compete at the WTA250 Hobart tournament this week. Following Zhang Shuai and You Xiaodi’s exits in the WTA500 Adelaide qualifying rounds, Wang has become the only Chinese player still active on the tour. In the first round, Wang faces Australian wildcard entry Gibson. Having beaten Gibson twice before, Wang should be expected to win again if she plays normally. So, how far can she advance? Will she continue her winning streak and reach the final again like last week? This is the first question awaiting Chinese players this week.

This week, Xu Yifan, Yang Zhaoxuan, Wang Xinyu, Zheng Saisai, and Jiang Xinyu will appear in the WTA250 Hobart women's doubles draw, while veteran Zhang Shuai will compete in the WTA500 Adelaide doubles event. Can Zhang Shuai secure a doubles victory in the 2026 season? If she wins, can she maintain momentum and achieve a strong result? Will the other players again dominate the WTA250 Hobart doubles event as they did last week by taking both the championship and runner-up? This is the second question Chinese players need to answer this week.

Cui Jie, Sun Fajing, and Zhou Yi will team up to compete in the Nonthaburi Challenger. Last week, Sun Fajing unexpectedly exited in the second round, but this week the number of Chinese players competing in challengers is much higher. Last season, Cui Jie reached his first career challenger final here; will he continue to shine in his first challenger appearance of 2026? Can Zhou Yi perform well in his first 2026 challenger event to help secure a Grand Slam qualifying spot? Will Sun Fajing break out of his slump and play strongly? These are the third set of questions awaiting Chinese players this week.

This week, the Australian Open qualifiers will fully commence, with eight Chinese players—Wu Yibing, Zhu Lin, Wei Sijia, Bai Zhuoxuan, Guo Hanyu, Ma Yexin, Gao Xinyu, and Yuan Yue—participating. Among them, who will emerge successfully from the qualifiers and add strength to the Chinese contingent already in the main draw? This is the fourth question Chinese players need to address this week.

In the 2026 season, no Chinese male tennis player has yet reached the quarterfinals of a futures event. Will any Chinese male player break through this week? Last week, Ren Yufei, Huang Yujia, and Zhang Ying fell short in the women’s doubles final of the futures tournament, finishing as runners-up. Can Chinese female players capture the women’s doubles title in the futures event this week? This is the fifth question awaiting answers from Chinese players. We look forward to these five major questions being satisfactorily resolved this week. That’s the tennis story for today; see you tomorrow.(Source: Tennis Home, Author: Yixin Jushi)