Top seeds Jannik Sinner, Carlos Alcaraz, and Daniil Medvedev have all made the semi-finals of the China Open – but a surprise face has joined them in Beijing.

Few would have predicted Chinese wildcard Bu Yunchaokete to progress to the last four but the world No 96 has defied the odds to reach this stage – and will face Sinner tomorrow.

The 22-year-old has cemented his place as one of the hottest prospects on the ATP Tour, but how has he arrived at this stage?

We take a look at his journey so far.

Personal life and early tennis origins

Yunchaokete was born in Xinjiang, part of the Bortala Mongol Autonomous Prefecture, in north-west China in January 2002 to a family of ethnic Mongolian heritage.

His father sadly passed away when he was young and he was largely raised by his paternal grandparents during his early years.

However, with his grandparents unable to speak Mandarin, they sent him to a SOS children’s village in Urumqi to receive a formal education.

It was there that he started playing tennis and was ultimately scouted by a coach, and moved to Huzhou for training.

Steady progress

Yunchaokete has made huge strides in recent weeks, but signs of his potential have been seen across the past two seasons.

In April 2023, he defeated Aleksandar Vukic to win his first Challenger title in Seoul, and has won further Challenger tournaments in Wuxi and Granby in 2024.

Last year he also picked up his first Masters 1000 match win in Shanghai, defeating Miomir Kecmanovic as a wildcard to progress to the second round.

Then, just at the end of this summer, Yunchaokete made his Grand Slam debut at the US Open.

He successfully came through three rounds of qualifying to seal his maiden major main draw spot, falling in straight sets to eighth seed and former finalist Casper Ruud.

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Hangzhou run

Before his success in Beijing, Yunchaokete impressed at the Hangzhou Open last week.

The Chinese received a wildcard into the main draw of the ATP 250 event, downing Hugo Gaston in round one before upsetting second seed Karen Khachanov in three sets.

The 22-year-old then breezed past Mikhail Kukushkin to reach the last four, where he faced Zhang Zhizhen in the first all-Chinese semi-final in ATP Tour history.

Yunchaokete was beaten in straight sets by Zhizhen, though that run saw him crack the top 100 of the ATP Rankings and reach his current high of world No 96.

First top-10 win

The 22-year-old then came straight into the China Open, where he has again ridden a wave of home support to become the first home player to reach the last four in the men’s singles draw.

Yunchaokete started with a three-set victory over compatriot Jerry Shang, before dropping just six games to pick up the first top-20 win of his career with a 6-2, 6-4 win over sixth seed Lorenzo Musetti.

That was the biggest win of his career until Monday, where he downed fourth seed and world No 6 Andrey Rublev 7-5, 6-4 to reach the last four.

“I was super nervous, but it’s super exciting because I had so many fans supporting me,” he said.

“Also maybe there was a bit of an advantage for me because Andrey had a first match in the morning and a second match in the night.

“I want to thank all the fans here that support me and give me that energy – that makes me play good tennis here.”

Victory over Rublev propels him up 27 places to world No 69 in the ATP Live Rankings – though he faces one of the biggest tests possible next.

Defending champion and world No 1 Sinner waits in the semi-finals, with that match set to take place tomorrow.

“When we played juniors in Italy he beat me in like one hour, maybe 6-1, 6-2. He’s already world No 1 and [a] two-time Grand Slam champion.

“I’m really excited and really looking forward to tomorrow.”

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