Zhang Shuai, Yuan Yue, and Wu Yibing all secured victories on the fifth day of the Lunar New Year; Alcaraz dominated Fils, while Svitolina suffered a heavy defeat and lost the title.

Three minutes daily to catch up on global tennis news. Hello tennis fans, today is Sunday, February 22, 2026. Welcome to the news midday report brought to you by Tennis Home.

First, let’s look at how Chinese players performed on the fifth day of the Lunar New Year. Last night Beijing time, in the first round of the ATP 500 Acapulco singles qualifying, the newly crowned Chinese No.1 Wu Yibing played impressively, defeating Argentina’s Ficoevich 6-0, 6-2 without dropping a game, advancing smoothly to the final qualifying round where he will face Australian Rinpei Tsuchikata for a main draw spot.

In the first round of the WTA 500 Merida singles qualifying, Chinese veteran Zhang Shuai defeated her former conqueror, Pete, with a score of 6-3, 6-4, achieving revenge. In the final qualifying round, Zhang will face Italian Trevisan.

At the WTA 250 Austin singles qualifying first round, Chinese star Yuan Yue swept American Wardes 6-0, 6-0, advancing to the final qualifying round; meanwhile, fellow Chinese player You Xiaodi lost 2-6, 3-6 to Taiwan’s Joanna Garland, exiting in her debut match.

Let’s turn to other tournaments: last night Beijing time, the ATP 500 Qatar Doha event concluded spectacularly. In the singles final, top seed and world No.1 Alcaraz crushed French rising star Fils in just 50 minutes with a 6-2, 6-1 victory, extending his winning streak to 12 matches this year, capturing his second title of the season and the 26th of his career. This marks Alcaraz’s ninth ATP 500 title, leading among players born after 2000.

Following this match, Alcaraz’s ranking points rose to 13,550, extending his lead over second-ranked Sinner (10,400 points) by more than 3,000 points, widening the gap between them further.

At the ATP 500 Rio event: due to rain this morning, two singles semifinals were delayed—one unfinished and one not yet started—both postponed to the next day, meaning finalists will have to play two matches in one day. In the first semifinal, Czech player Kopleva led Argentina’s Echeverry 5-4 in the first set; the second semifinal features Chile’s Tabilo facing Peru’s dark horse Buse.

In the ATP 250 Delray Beach singles semifinals, American Korda defeated Italian Cobolli 7-6, 6-1 to meet compatriot Paul in the final, who came back from behind to beat younger brother Renna-Chen 4-6, 6-4, 6-3.

On the women’s side: in the WTA 1000 Dubai singles final, Ukrainian Svitolina was unable to break through the American’s defense, losing 6-2, 6-4 to fourth seed and US star Pegula, missing out on the title and bringing their head-to-head record to 3-6. Pegula claimed her fourth WTA 1000 title and tenth overall tour singles championship.

Looking ahead to next week’s tournaments: last night Beijing time, the main draws for upcoming events were released. The ATP 500 Acapulco will be led by German star Zverev and Australian rising talent Deminal, with players like Ruud, Dimitrov, and Vachero also competing.

The top two seeds at the ATP 250 Santiago event are Argentina’s F. Cerundolo and Italy’s Darderi, with players such as Berrettini and Echeverry set to compete for two consecutive weeks.

At the WTA 500 Merida, five Chinese players will compete in doubles: Tang Qianhui/Xu Yifan, Guo Hanyu/Muradnovich, Feng Shuo/Brooks, and Jiang Xinyu/Buksha.

In the WTA 250 Austin doubles draw, there is only one Chinese pair participating, Wang Xinyu and Zheng Saisai.

Finally, let’s play a guessing game. The following picture shows a player during a match. Without any hints, can you identify who he is?

In the previous guessing game, some fans gave the correct answer. That’s right, the person in the image is Denmark’s top player Rune.

(Source: Tennis Home Author: Lone Wolf)