Punching above her weight for the fifth time in a row, Slovakia’s Dominika Cibulkova finally ran out of fight.
The 24-year-old world No.24 had beaten four opponents seeded above her in succession to reach the Australian Open women’s final.
But while she overcame a nervy start to push fourth seed and third-time finalist Li Na all the way in the opening set of Saturday night’s decider in Melbourne Park, the Slovakian couldn’t sustain it.
The first set took 70 minutes and Cibulkova, despite managing only seven winners for the set to Li’s 22, twice levelled the score after dropping serve to force a tiebreak.
But the second set lasted just 27 minutes as Li triumphed 7-6 (7-3) 6-0.
Despite that disappointment, the Slovakian has plenty of reasons to take heart.
In making the final, Cibulkova notched twice as many wins as she’d managed in the most successful of her previous six visits to Melbourne Park.
And it was one more victory than in her previous six most recent grand slam events combined.
In downing 2008 champion Maria Sharapova in the fourth round and world No.5 Agnieszka Radwanska in the semi-finals, Cibulkova also recorded as many wins over top-five opponents this week as she did all of last year.
She also made national history.
No other man or woman representing Slovakia had made a grand slam final.
And Cibulkova will vault to No.13 in the rankings, just one spot off the career high she achieved soon after making a French Open semi-final in 2009.
The Slovakian can also take some solace from her opponent’s career path.
Li reached her first grand slam final at the Australian Open in 2011 and lost.
Less than five months later she became the French Open champion.
Cibulkova, more than seven years Li’s junior, has performed far better in the French Open over the course of her career than at any other major.
Until this year, the Australian Open had been her least successful.
So for the shortest woman in the world’s top 100, things are looking up.