Yuling Zhu

Zhu was born in Mianyang in 1995 and began playing table tennis at the age of five, as it kept her occupied while she was ill. At the age of nine, she and her mother moved so that she could train, and she joined the provincial team when she was twelve. She was selected for the Chinese national team at fifteen. In addition to her academic studies, she trained nine hours a day, leaving little time for her family.

She is the two-time winner of the World Junior Table Tennis Championships in girls' singles. She was a semi-finalist at the 2013 World Table Tennis Championships. In 2016, Zhu was a reserve player at the Summer Olympics in Rio.

In 2017, Zhu advanced to the women's singles final at the World Championships, where she lost to her compatriot Ding Ning in six games. She ascended to the world number one ranking in November after a thrilling 4–3 win against Liu Shiwen at the ITTF Women's World Cup in Markham, Ontario.

Zhu began experiencing health issues in 2019 and was diagnosed with a benign tumor in 2020. In order to pursue a spot at the Tokyo Olympics, she delayed treatment. She eventually underwent surgery to remove the tumor in 2021 and left the Chinese national team later that year. In 2022, she began her Doctorate of Business Administration program at the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China. A year later, she became an associate professor in the sports department at Tianjin University.

In 2023, Zhu applied to transfer her registration to Macau through a foreign talent introduction program and officially acquired citizenship the following year. She returned to the international stage for the first time in over four years, representing Macau at the WTT Champions event in September 2024. In October, she captured a WTT Feeder singles title, and in 2025, she won the women's singles title at the WTT United States Smash.