Tenth match point does it: Ann Li knocks Sabalenka out of Wuhan – Pegula also falls
3-6, 6-4, 7-6 after 2 hours 27 minutes: American Ann Li beats top seed Aryna Sabalenka at the WTA 1000 event in Wuhan. The No. 2 seed had already gone out earlier.
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Aryna Sabalenka has lost her opening match at the WTA 1000 tournament in Wuhan. The top seed from Belarus was beaten in the second round by American Ann Li 6-3, 4-6, 6-7 (5). Sabalenka led by a set and 4-2, but Li won nine of the next eleven games. Li led 5-2 in the decider – according to the WTA, Sabalenka saved nine match points in all before Li converted her tenth after 2 hours 27 minutes.
"I was about to crash out," Li said of her missed chances, according to the WTA. It was her first win over Sabalenka in four meetings and her third career top-10 victory. In the last 16 she faces Indonesia's Janice Tjen. Sabalenka, who has lost the world No. 1 ranking to Elena Rybakina, has not won a title since March, AFP reported.
No. 2 seed Jessica Pegula is out too: last year's runner-up lost to Jelena Ostapenko 6-2, 6-7 (7), 3-6 after squandering three match points. According to AFP, it was Pegula's first opening-match defeat at a WTA 1000 event in around two and a half years. Karolina Muchova beat Caty McNally 3-6, 7-6 (1), 7-6 (4) in around three hours – she has won all ten of her tie-breaks this season.