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Zhe Li achieved the biggest victory of his career at the AO Asia-Pacific Wildcard Play-off. At 32 years of age, he's set to make his Grand Slam main-draw debut 🙌 #AusOpen pic.twitter.com/7LORCxTYWj
— TennisAustralia (@TennisAustralia) December 3, 2018

In a fairy tale final, Zhe Li, a 32-year-old who has never broken into the Top 200, managed to defeat Zhang Ze in the Australian Open Asia-Pacific Wildcard Playoff in Zhuhai. The victory gives the Chinese player a chance to his main-draw debut in Melbourne.

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Third seed Zhe Li and top seed Shuai Peng will be heading to Melbourne in January after winning the #AusOpen Asia-Pacific Wildcard Play-off finals in Zhuhai. pic.twitter.com/SRJ0Sv6iSp
— #AusOpen (@AustralianOpen) December 2, 2018

Since turning pro in 2004, Li's 1-6, 7-6 (2), 6-4 win over Zhang was the biggest of his career. He has 14 ITF Pro Circuit Futures titles to his name and his best runs at the Grand Slams were in 2016 when he reached the second round of qualifying at the French Open and Wimbledon. He has never played the Australian Open before.

Just goes to show how much this event meant to Zhe Li. Second best for all of the first set, but raised his level at the end of the 2nd set. Fantastic turnaround. #AustralianOpen pic.twitter.com/WsORqvHnKn
— Jake Davies (@jakedavi5) December 2, 2018

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“I’m really excited now. It shows I still can be competitive at this age, all the hard work has paid off," Li said "I actually thought about it this morning. I hope it can be Rafael Nadal or Novak Djokovic [in the first round]."

The women's wildcard winner was China's Peng Shuai, a former world No. 14 currently ranked No. 182.

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