How Li Tu has harnessed heartbreak: 'She's still with me. I truly believe that'
Li Tu was playing Jesper de Jong Thursday in the final round of US Open qualifying on Court 6, which sits in the shadow of Arthur Ashe Stadium, the biggest tennis-only stadium on the planet. The Australian battled with the Dutchman deep into the third set of their match and even faced two match points on serve at 4-5. His dream of qualifying for a major for the first time nearly slipped away.
During the decider, the 28-year-old thought about his mother, Yu Ping Zheng, who passed away nearly two years ago after a courageous battle with lung cancer.
“I was a little bit nervous in the third set and I remember looking up at the change of ends, seeing her face, and just saying, ‘We’ve got this, we’ve got this, we’ve got this’,” Tu told ATPTour.com. “She’s still with me. I truly believe that, and I just want to make my parents proud. I know no matter what I do, they would be. But I just want to make them proud.”
Tu rallied to win the match and earn his place in the main draw at the season’s final major. It was a memorable moment for a player who left the sport altogether for six years and has had to deal with the tragedy of losing a loved one since his return. He will play four-time Grand Slam champion Carlos Alcaraz in the first round.
“Honestly, I already almost started tearing up, 30-love that last game, because I was like, ‘Oh, wow, is this going to happen?’” Tu said. “I got a wild card into the 2021 [Australian Open], but how that all happened, it was pretty weird. This one, I earned it. I did it, I qualified. Playing a major is stuff that people dream about, that I dreamed as a kid as well. And to really do it, do it properly, it’s just truly amazing.”
When Tu was five years old, he went to badminton training with his brother Chen, 10 years his elder. Li, an Adelaide native born to Chinese parents (his brother was born in China), began hitting the birdie over the net and the coach said, “Wow, your little brother is actually quite talented”. He was told to go play tennis instead because there was more money in the sport.
Tu’s father, Yi Xing Tu, was “really sporty”, but was only about 170 centimetres tall. He was coordinated and had talent in basketball and volleyball, but lacked the size.
His son, Li, quickly showed ability in tennis and as he began taking lessons, it did not take long to establish himself as a top junior. Thanasi Kokkinakis, who was born less than two months before him, was his competition for the No. 1 player in Australia through the juniors.
Tu’s father was dedicated to his tennis and pushed him to improve. His mother was on the opposite side of the spectrum.
<img src=”/-/media/images/news/2024/08/26/05/06/tu-us-open-2024-mom.jpg?w=100%25&hash=315DEBBA05084F2AECD398D5B9DDC8BB” style=”width:100%;” alt=”Li Tu” />
“My mom just wanted me to be happy. She would honestly ask, ‘You sure you want to play tennis? Like, it’s really hot out there, it’s a lot of hard work, you don’t have to play if you don’t want to’,” Tu recalled. “As long as I was happy, she really didn’t care if I did well or not. I think she just wanted me to be happy. I think she could see that tennis made me happy, or thriving in tennis made me happy, so that’s what she wanted for me.
“She was more the one that made sure food was on the table, that I was wearing my sunscreen, that I got enough sleep, things like that, mom’s stuff.”
By 18, Tu decided to quit the sport.
“I live with no regrets, and I think at the time, everything works out as it should be,” Tu said. “I look back, and I think that it was all a bit too much for me, the expectations. I really was a bit burnt out.”
The Australian moved on with his life, earning a Bachelor of Commerce from Adelaide University in 2017. Tu also started a coaching business, helping players pursue their dreams. Leaving competition also helped reignite his love for the sport.
“It really helped, coaching juniors,” Tu said. “Having a perspective from the sidelines really helped my comeback, and getting that extra perspective really made me understand things from a whole other level.”
Tu kept in touch with some of his mates from the Tour, but naturally it was not always easy because of their travels. He stayed at Nick Kyrgios’ house a couple of time while in Canberra.
In 2020, then 24, Tu began to work towards a comeback. In 2021, he began playing professional tournaments. His first two events back, an ATP 250 in Melbourne and the Australian Open. It was clear early on that his coaching experience and time away helped prepare him for the ups and downs of tennis.
“I learned a lot watching the sport from the sidelines, coaching, being in people’s journeys from the side,” Tu said.
[ATP APP]His coach, Ben Milner, was the man with whom he started M2 Tennis to coach promising young Australian juniors. According to Milner, Tu struggled when results did not come straight away at the senior level. Their coaching work helped shift his mindset.
“The strong messaging we were giving these juniors was to work hard, have fun and enjoy the journey win or lose, it was then I could tell that message was starting to resonate within himself,” Milner said. “After discussions with his close friends and family he decided to give tennis a crack again but this time with a new perspective on tennis: work hard, have fun along the way and enjoy the new journey! It has been unbelievable how he has stuck with this mantra through both good times and bad. And through this he found his passion and is able to deal with whatever is thrown at him, good or bad.”
Before the Aussie quit, he had never cracked the Top 1,000 in the PIF ATP Rankings. By July 2022, just a year and a half into his return, he was in the Top 300. But at the same time, there were difficulties in Tu’s personal life. More than seven years ago, his mother was diagnosed with lung cancer.
“It would come and then it’d go, and then it would come back again, and then it would go,” Tu said. “Then the last year, there was a significant decline, where we all sort of knew that she was not going to be able to last much longer.”
In August 2022, Tu returned home to Adelaide after an ATP Challenger Tour event in Chicago. He was excited to marry his now-wife, Kimberley, on 25 November. But his family had not really fully clued him into his mother’s condition.
“I got back and she was sort of bedridden,” Tu said. “I was like, ‘Oh, wow, it’s really declined here’. And that’s when I took a long break. I sort of stopped traveling, and I spent a lot of time at home.”
<img src=”/-/media/images/news/2024/08/26/05/06/tu-us-open-2024-mom-wedding.jpg” style=”width:100%;” alt=”Li Tu” />
Tu’s brother Chen, now an orthopaedic surgeon, told him he did not believe their mother would make it to the wedding. Li and Kimberley moved up their wedding to 3 September.
“It was one of the most beautiful moments of my life, where less than 20 people were at the wedding, and I got married to Kimberley, and my mom was there,” Tu said. “She passed away on the 24th of September, at 3 a.m. We had the funeral the next Friday.”
Shortly thereafter, Tu flew to South Korea for a few ATP Challenger Tour events. After a second-round loss in the first one, Tu battled through qualifying in Seoul and won his first Challenger title. His father and other family members watched the match, projected on the wall of a Chinese restaurant back home.
“It was a really tough moment for my family. Honestly, we all still haven’t really gotten over it,” Tu said. “We all still miss her every day. Every time we talk about her, we sort of tear up a little bit, and she really was one of the best people. We miss her. We miss her dearly.”
<img src=”/-/media/images/news/2024/08/26/05/25/tu-us-open-2024-dad.jpg” style=”width:100%;” alt=”Li Tu” />
The Adelaide native has carried on in her honour and two years on, aged 28, is continuing to break new ground. Tu will compete in a major main draw on his own merit, by qualifying, for the first time at Flushing Meadows.
Milner said: “It was a tough time for Li but he used these tough times as strong motivation to drive him harder than ever before, and I know always will.”
The No. 186 player in the PIF ATP Rankings has never faced a Top 50 opponent in his career. Facing Alcaraz inside Arthur Ashe Stadium Tuesday evening will be a memory for a lifetime.
“It’s amazing. I guess I forget sometimes in tennis because it’s just me out there, sometimes I forget that there’s family behind or what tennis means to a lot more people,” Tu said. “When I qualified, so many people reposted it, so many people commented. I forget that there’s so many people involved and I think that I could play one of the best players on a stadium like Arthur Ashe Stadium, biggest tennis court in the world, biggest tennis stadium in the world, have mum watching, that will stay with me forever.
“I just hope that I can put in a good performance, and I can make my parents proud, especially, mom.”
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