MADRID, Spain — It’s a second career top 10 win for Ann Li!
Madrid: Scores | Draws | Order of play
Though not ending the way Li envisioned, the American upset World No. 4 Iga Swiatek 7-6 (4), 2-6, 3-0 ret. to earn her second top 10 win 12 tries, and the highest ranked win in her career. After Swiatek took a medical timeout down 0-2 in the third set, Li then held serve at love, and Swiatek retired officially with a gastrointestinal illness a few points into the fourth game.
“The past two days were pretty terrible, I think I have some virus,” Swiatek said. “It’s been some hours fine, some hours pretty bad. I had zero energy, zero stability, and I just felt really bad physically.”
Li’s previous top 10 win came more than four years ago, defeating Anett Kontaveit in the second round of the Miami Open. The win Saturday is also Li’s fifth career victory over a former Grand Slam champion on the WTA Tour Driven by Mercedes-Benz, and she’s reached her second career Round of 16 at a WTA-1000 event (2026 Doha). She’ll face Leylah Fernandez in the fourth round.
Despite Swiatek’s retirement, Li had to fight her way to the finish in a match that saw both players save set points in the opening set. Going toe-to-toe with the former Madrid champion, Li won nearly 70% of her first serve points, of which 62% of her first serves landed.
Here’s how it happened:
Li saves two set points en route to clutch tiebreak
Li had her chance to secure the first set much earlier than in the tiebreak. Following early breaks by both, Li and Swiatek traded holds until Li found a break at the perfect time. Swiatek forehand shot went long, and Li had a chance to serve for the set at 5-4. Leading 40-30, Li’s first moment came, but often Swiatek managed to dictate the rallies by forcing Li to each corner, and that dictation set up an easy overhead smash to save the set point.
Then, it was Li’s turn to save a set point — two, actually. Following a Swiatek hold at love to take a 6-5 lead, Swiatek pressured Li on her serve into a deuce. Twice, Swiatek had set points at ad-40. The first, she shanked a forehand out wide, and second, she smartly tried to take advantage Li’s second serve, but her backhand off the kick went into the net, and Li eventually held.
The two went toe-to-toe in a nervy tiebreak, but Li’s final three points at 4-4 sealed the first set, including set point, where Li hit her most clever shot of the match with a backhand drop shot that Swiatek could not sprint too.
Swiatek blitzes Li in the second, but falls ill
Fresh off a in-between set extended changeover, Swiatek sprinted out of the gates, winning 16 of the first 21 points en route to a 4-0 lead, highlighted by an opening break at love. Those two early breaks would be enough, as the Polish national won the set in just 39 minutes.
The decider followed the same pattern the decider did with Li notching an early break to take a 2-0 lead that was a result of poor Swiatek forehand errors. However, it seemed Swiatek’s level was off, appearing more lethargic, culminating in the medical timeout where she was treated for illness. Though returning to the court after the timeout, Li held serve, and Swiatek could not complete the match as she bows out of Madrid much earlier than she anticipated.
“I knew that’s going to be hard, but I still wanted to try because I already have been sick twice in my career and I could still win most of my matches,” Swiatek said. “I guess it depends on how bad it is, and I guess this time it was worse than before.”
Fernandez rallies to defeat Jovic
In a comeback 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 win over 15th-seeded Iva Jovic, Fernandez booked her spot in Madrid’s last 16 at, guaranteeing her best finish at the event in her career. She’s previously reached the third round in both 2024 and 2022.
Saturday’s third-rounder was the first-career meeting vs. Jovic, and Fernandez said she was pleased with the way she was able to bounce back from the dropped first set.
“The first set, she came out swinging and she was very aggressive — which that was not my game plan — and in the second set, I’m just happy with the way that I reset, refocused, and tried to destabilize as much as possible,” Fernandez said to press.
Fernandez said the dropped first set irked her, but her ability to forget about the recent past has been something she’s been working on. Once settling into her set changeover routine, she quickly calmed an
“Right when the first had ended — I would say the first five seconds — I was upset, I was really upset,” Fernandez said. But then afterwards, I sat down, did my routine, ate my banana, I drank my drinks.
“I’ve been working on this a lot is to actually forget about what has happened and just to be in the present moment, so it definitely helped in calming myself down.”
More to come…
