Ann Li began 2025 ranked No.91 — a name drifting on the outskirts of relevance, too talented to ignore but too inconsistent to trust. What followed was a year defined by incremental gains, the kind you only notice if you’re watching closely. By the time the tour closed in Jiujiang, she’d worked her way all the way to No.38. No grand reinvention, no viral run — just the slow, stubborn kind of climb that says more about a player’s character than any single headline.
This is her year in full — the latest chapter in our look back at the WTA’s 2025 cast, where every player gets judged, graded, and handed a GPA whether they asked for one or not.
Hobart Gives Her a Spark, Melbourne Brings Reality
Li started in Hobart qualies — the tour’s unloved trenches — and fought through Paquet and Lamens before taking out a rusty Sloane Stephens in the main draw. Yastremska stopped her in three, but the tennis was clean, the footwork alive, the signs quietly encouraging.
Then Melbourne returned her to the real world. Event winner Madison Keys dismissed her 6-4, 7-5 — competitive enough, but the gulf was visible. Li left Australia with points, rhythm and a ranking bump, but also the sense that she’d need weeks, not flashes, to climb out of the 80s.
Singapore: A Run That Changed Her Season
Singapore was her first proper launching pad. Wins over Saville, Timofeeva, and Birrell put her in the quarterfinals. The win over Kalinskaya — 7-6, 1-0, retired — was scrappy, the kind Li builds good seasons from. The final against Mertens was one-sided, but the run wasn’t. It was her first signal of the year: Ann Li was no longer drifting.
A Harsh Desert, a Hard Reality
Dubai qualifying ended with a retirement to Eva Lys.
Indian Wells saw her lose a physical three-setter to Begu.
Miami delivered another three-set grinding loss, this time to Townsend.
The top-line read: three early exits.
The subtext: Li was competing, pushing, not folding. And every time she walked off court, the ranking moved another inch up. She was now 66th in the rankings.
Clay: A Messy Start, Then Madrid Sharpens Everything
Charleston brought a tidy win over Blinkova, then a reality check from Alexandrova.
Madrid, however, was Li’s most impressive clay week outside Asia. She dismissed Sasnovich, then stunned Leylah Fernandez 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 — one of her most complete wins of the season. Coco Gauff blew past her in the third round, but that’s what Coco Gauff tends to do in early spring.
Rome and Rabat showed the same theme: competitive, combative, but not quite crossing the threshold. She pushed Bouzas Maneiro to a final-set tiebreak in Rome. She made the Rabat quarterfinals as a top seed before Maya Joint ran her ragged.
Roland Garros brought a gentle start, beating Maria Lourdes Carlé 6-4, 6-0, but Pegula closed her out firmly in the second round.
Clay was never going to define her season; she treated it as a bridge, not a destination.
Grass: Dangerous, But Never Quite Comfortable
Li began s’Hertogenbosch with a brilliant win over Potapova — one of her sharpest of the year — but then lost to Suzan Lamens in two tiebreaks. Eastbourne saw Raducanu flip a tight match in the second set.
Wimbledon brought a familiar arc: a solid opening win over Golubic, then a three-set fade against Mertens. Strong fundamentals, flashes of danger, but never truly at ease.
Iasi and Prague: Clay Reset, Hard-Court Progress
Back on clay in Iasi, she handled Maristany without fuss before a flat loss to Siskova exposed some lingering inconsistencies.
Prague was steadier — two clean wins, then a competitive quarterfinal defeat to Bouzkova, who simply made more balls when it mattered.
North America: The Summer That Reshaped Her Ranking
Montreal was a heartbreak of the productive kind: a 7-6, 0-6, 6-3 loss to Kalinskaya that showed both her level and her volatility. Cincinnati and Monterrey were quiet.
Then Cleveland exploded.
Li beat Starodubtseva, Jovic, Jacquemot, and then No.37 Wang Xinyu in a nervy, gritty semifinal. She made the final — her biggest run since early 2022 — before Cirstea snapped her rhythm. But the semi was the story. Points. Belief. Ranking.
The US Open doubled it.
She beat Sramkova, stunned Belinda Bencic in straight sets, took out Priscilla Hon, and reached the second week of a Slam for the first time in three years. Pegula was merciless, but the message was sent: Ann Li was back in the conversation.
Asia: Punching Up, Punching Even, Punching Through
Beijing was brutal — a three-hour opening-round loss to Osorio.
Wuhan redeemed it: she beat Raducanu cleanly before Alexandrova halted her.
Osaka gave her another spark: a brilliant 6-4, 6-0 win over Gracheva before Sramkova — again — solved her in three.
Then came Guangzhou, her most composed week of the season.
Li strung together five straight wins — Osorio again, Cocciaretto, Shuai Zhang, and finally Lulu Sun in the final.
A title at WTA level, built not on luck but consistency.
Jiujiang closed the year meekly, but it changed nothing.
From No.91 to No.38 in ten months. No shortcuts. No free rides.
The Li Assessment
Ann Li’s 2025 leaves you with one impression above all: durability. She played long matches, awkward matches, ugly matches — and usually found a way. She reached a WTA 250 final, won another, made a Slam second week, and beat players ranked 23, 19 (Bencic), 18 (Kalinskaya), 37 and 32 at different points of the year.
Her ceiling isn’t flashy, but her floor has risen sharply. The ranking rise alone — 53 spots — is one of the biggest in the Top 50 this season.
Li’s biggest improvement wasn’t her serve or her forehand. It was her ability to stay in tournaments, not disappear from them. A year of grown-up tennis, not streaky tennis.
Ann Li didn’t shock the sport in 2025.
She simply outlasted it.
Final Verdict: B+ (with A-level resilience)
A season defined by consistency, courage in tight matches, and a quiet, relentless climb from No.91 to No.38.
GPA: 3.3
A genuine return to relevance — and a platform for something bigger.
Navarro’s 2025: A Year Spent Wrestling With the Weight of the Top 10
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Alexandrova 2025: The Year Ekaterina Finally Stopped Knocking and Walked In