What a rollercoaster ride this has been for Australia’s Li Tu! He fought back from all the adversities that came in his life and gave a tough fight to the world number 3 at one of the biggest stages of the game. Talking about adversities, his mother passed away in 2022 after a long battle with lung cancer. Losing the biggest supporter of his life was never an ideal situation for a budding tennis player. So, coming back from those hardships and playing against Carlos Alcaraz is surely a big accomplishment in his career.

After playing the last round of the US Open qualifying, he said, “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’. She’s still with me. I truly believe that, and I just want to make my parents proud.“ Although he lost the match against Alcaraz by 2-6, 6-4, 3-6, 6-1 but showed a fair bit of resilience. There are going to be many such moments in his career, but he misses his mother not watching him play on the bigger stages of the game.

In October 2022, he penned down a heartfelt note on Instagram to the biggest supporter of his life. Li Tu wrote, “It has been the toughest 2 months of my life. Watching you battle cancer, struggle, and fight every day as you slowly lose your senses. Continuing tennis training because you were relentless that I must keep going and you are “getting better.” Being by your side as you took your last breath on 24/09/22 surrounded by our family who love you so much.“

He added, “A few days before you passed, you said to me ‘I’ll see you in Korea’ and I broke down in tears. Coming over to Korea the day after your funeral, I wasn’t sure I could do it but before every match, I looked up at the sky and I couldn’t help but smile when I saw you. We did it, Mum.” His family has gone through a lot of tough phases over the fans. It’s good to see they are finally having a moment to cherish through their younger son.

Sports runs in his blood. His father, Yi Xing Tu, was “really sporty” and despite not having an advantage of height, he used to love playing basketball and volleyball. Li Tu was just 5 years old when he went to the badminton training with his 10-year-old brother, Chen. After seeing his enormous talent, he was then told to take up other racquet sports because there was more money involved in that sport. And that’s how his beautiful journey with tennis started.

Li Tu’s father initially played a crucial role in developing his game, however, his mother was a bit different. As per, Li Tu, his mom simply wanted him to “be happy.“ Whenever conditions were troublesome to play tennis, she would say, “you don’t have to play if you don’t want to.” He said as long as he was happy, his mother wouldn’t care if he did well or not.

“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.” Furthermore, she would ensure he’s getting a proper diet, wearing sunscreen, and got enough sleep. However, there was a time when he stepped away from hisb beloved racquet sport.

“I really was a bit burnt out” – Li Tu was forced to quit tennis for almost six years

Revealing the real reason behind this move in 2014, Li Tu once spoke about how he was overwhelmed with the demands of the sport and had to step back from tennis. Although Li Tu moved on with his life and earned himself a Bachelor’s degree in Commerce from Adelaide University in 2017, he helped players pursue their dreams in the sport at the same time.

Coaching junior players perhaps helped him reignite his love for the sport. It allowed him to get a perspective from the sidelines, which later on helped him in making that comeback. Six years later, in 2020, he started his preparation for a comeback, and then in 2021, he again started playing professional tennis.

In 2022, he got married, and even his wedding had an emotional story attached to it. Li Tu revealed as soon as he got back home after playing a Challenger even in Chicago, he saw his mom was bedridden. “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,” he said. His brother told him that perhaps their mother wouldn’t make it to the wedding, so they had to move their marriage date to September instead of November.

His mother passed away almost 21 days after their marriage. “It was a really tough moment for my family. Honestly, we all still haven’t really gotten over it. We all still miss her every day,” said the tennis player. All he now wishes is to make his parents more proud through his performance. Talking about performance, surely his mother would’ve been really proud of her son’s performance against a Top 3 player like Carlos Alcaraz.