A CHINESE veteran hellbent on making the qualifying cut for next year's Australian Open is proving a formidable force in his Alice Springs debut.
Zhe Li, known affectionately as "Tiger", won the $15,000+H tournament's doubles title alongside countryman Xin Gao yesterday afternoon to go with his morning singles quarter-final victory over Queenslander Gavin van Peperzeel. 
The 29-year-old, who hails from Tianjin, skipped the chance to play at ATP World Tour level in Shenzhen, China, this week to instead make the journey south for the Alice Springs' Futures event.
"My singles ranking is 299 now and I'm trying to get more points for next year for Aussie Open qualies," Li said.
"We have three big tournaments in China from this week - one 250 (level), one 500 and one 1000 and I can get a wildcard, but I need to get more points to make qualies for Aussie Open.
"In qualies or main draw (in Shenzhen) I would play a top-100 player for sure, so it's tough to get points and that's why I decided to come here." The gamble is paying off for the Chinese Davis Cup star, who partnered Gao to a 3-6, 6-3, (10-1) victory in the doubles final over Australian top seeds Jordan Thompson and Alex Bolt.
They won the last 10 points of the contest to clinch what was mostly a hard-fought match. The key for the Chinese pairing was denying the home-country combination on all five of their second-set break points after Bolt poked a volley long to drop serve in the second game.
It is Li's and Gao's fourth doubles title together this year and eighth overall. They compete and train for the same Tianjin province team in China.
"My province team is really big in China - men's and girls," Li said. "A lot of our girls are top-100 players.
"I have been there 20 years already."Li faces Victorian Dayne Kelly in his singles semi-final from 10am today.