In tennis, the scoring system means an upset can take many forms. It can be a surprise thrashing, or a tight win that turns on a point or two. Or, as was the case in Wuhan Wednesday for the U.S.’s Ann Li, it can be a roller coaster.
Her scoreline against four-time Grand Slam champion Aryna Sabalenka barely told the story of an up-and-down encounter — before getting to the fact that there were 10 match points.
All of them for Li.
The American came back from 6-3, 4-2 down in the second set to lead Sabalenka 5-2 in the third, just one game from a remarkable win. Li then relinquished her lead — and with it seven match points — before forcing a third-set tiebreak and ultimately handing Sabalenka the second loss of her career in Wuhan, 3-6, 6-4, 7-6(5).
Li lifted her level considerably after a lackluster first set and capitalized on some poor shot selection from Sabalenka to win the second, but her serving in the third set was impeccable. She rattled off three love holds to cruise to a 4-1 lead before Sabalenka took a medical timeout to have the taping on her right knee reapplied.
Serving down 5-2, Sabalenka faced down the first two of what would prove to be five match points for Li in the game. Sabalenka wiped away the latter three with mighty serving that pinned Li into the backhand corner to set Sabalenka up for a straightforward first shot, but the first two were a little more complicated.
On both, Li had a second serve to attack. On the first, Li drew Sabalenka into a tentative slice rally from which she might have accelerated a forehand and exploited her opponent’s hampered movement, but faced with too many choices, she wafted a slice long:
On the second, Li did get the forehand she wanted, but rather than accelerating through it, she took too safe a swing and sent it into the net. She knew it, too, judging by her reaction: “Hit the ball!”
But Li never cowed. Right after that initial disappointment, she showed the situational awareness that had taken her to the edge of victory — and that Sabalenka has sometimes lacked during her spiraling defeats the past few months. With Sabalenka split-stepping to her left a fraction too early, in anticipation of a whipped crosscourt backhand, Li feathered a drop shot up the line. Sabalenka, her momentum against her, had no real chance of catching up:
Sabalenka ultimately escaped with a hold to make it 5-3, and ask Li to serve out her win. The American never got to a match point, going down 0-30 thanks to a powerful return from Sabalenka and some indecision on a net cord that gave her, again, too many choices.
That left Sabalenka having to fend off match points again in the next game. She saved two more — Li’s sixth and seventh — and from there both players held serve with ease to go to a deciding tiebreak.
At 6-3 in that tiebreak, on her eighth match point, Li nearly raised her arms in celebration. She thought she had done it, as Sabalenka smacked a forehand long … No. It clipped the back of the line. Li could only laugh:
Then she shook off a return into the net as match point No. 9 came and went, knowing that she was finally going to have one on her own serve. She went with her favorite, down the T, missed and went for the second-best option, pulling a wobbly Sabalenka wide before back tracking to hit a forehand down the line that Sabalenka simply watched sail by.
By then, the world No. 2 was out of fight, and out of one of her favorite tournaments of the year.
“I don’t want to expect anything, I just want to go out on the court and play good tennis,” Li said on court, after a typically understated celebration from the low-key American.
“Hopefully, I can show a good level from the start to the finish, and yeah. I really enjoy playing here on these courts.”
The crowd then roared for Li as she then answered questions in Chinese. Both of her parents are from China, though she didn’t always have the crowd on her side Wednesday as she started gaining momentum against Sabalenka, who’s become a crowd favorite in Wuhan.
For Sabalenka, the trip to one of her favorite tournaments couldn’t soothe her recent anguish. The world No. 2 is usually a tough out at the final WTA 1000 tournament of the year, where she has lifted the trophy three times. She carried a 20-1 record into this year’s event, and another title would’ve done a lot to show Sabalenka can still convincingly take care of business after a difficult past few months.
She lost the world No. 1 ranking and the U.S. Open final to Elena Rybakina and more recently suffered a surprise third-round upset at the China Open.
Sabalenka played with taping on her right knee against Li and seemed occasionally hampered by the injury during the match. But mostly she looked low energy, unable to muster even her usual level of anguish over a match slipping away — and they have slipped away from her this year. Sabalenka has a 5-8 record in deciding sets in 2026, compared to 12-6 in 2025 and 13-9 in 2024.
Just three of those losses this year have come against top-3 players. The rest have come against players having great seasons, but with whom Sabalenka had little issue at the height of her powers (aside from Ekaterina Alexandrova, who’s always liable to give her trouble): then-No. 32 Hailey Baptiste, No. 27 Sorana Cîrstea, No. 25 Diana Shnaider, No. 19 Alexandrova and now Li. Since Sabalenka’s loss to Baptiste at the Madrid Open, when the American saved six match points, the Belarusian is 2-6 in deciding sets.
On Wednesday, it was Sabalenka’s turn to do all the saving. Still, it wasn’t enough.
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
Tennis, Women's Tennis
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