What happened when Serena Williams made her only appearance at the Wuhan Open in 2014

Serena Williams only ever made one appearance at the Wuhan Open in her career, which came in 2014.

The Wuhan Open has been a tournament on the WTA Tour since 2014, and this year will be holding its ninth edition, having been absent on the calendar for four years.

Despite Williams making a comeback to tennis this year, she will not be competing at the 2026 Wuhan Open.

As a result, this makes Williams’ appearance at the WTA 1000 tournament in 2014, her only time ever competing in Wuhan.

Williams came into the inaugural Wuhan Open as the world number one, and was in good form as well after winning her 18th Grand Slam singles title at the US Open, which was her last tournament prior.

As the top seed, Williams received an automatic bye to the second round, where she would play against Frenchwoman Alize Cornet. Cornet was the world number 21 at the time, and while she may have not appeared to be a huge threat to Williams on paper, she had already beaten the American twice that year, including at Wimbledon.

Cornet once again came out on top against Williams, but this was a very different affair to her two previous victories. With Williams leading 6-5 against Cornet in the first set, she received medical attention and did not appear to be feeling well.

Williams subsequently handed Cornet the win after retiring due to a viral illness, and apologised to the fans in Wuhan after the match.

“I’m sorry to all the fans in Wuhan that I had to retire from my match against Alize today,” Williams said at the time. “I felt dizzy and nauseous in the first set and unfortunately couldn’t continue.

“The tournament organisers have done an amazing job preparing the facilities for this year’s event and I really hope to come back to the Wuhan Open in 2015.”

Despite Williams stating her intention to return to the Wuhan Open, she would never compete at the tournament ever again.

While Williams losing her only ever match at a tournament is a rare sight, the Wuhan Open is not the only WTA 1000 event where she did not capture a title.

Williams’ decorated career spans over 30 years, during which the WTA 1000 and equivalent tournaments have changed. Williams has competed at 15 different tournaments when they were WTA 1000 level events, and she has got her hands on at least one title at eight of those.

The only tournaments Williams never won as WTA 1000 events were the Qatar Open, Dubai Tennis Championships, the Wuhan Open, the German Open, the San Diego Open, the Zurich Open and the Kremlin Open.

Williams got close to winning some of these titles, but never made more than three appearances at any of these events when they were held as WTA 1000 tournaments.

The only WTA 1000 tournament where Williams lost her only match other than the Wuhan Open is the Zurich Open in 2007, having retired against Patty Schnyder in the first round after losing the first nine games of the match.