It has been a week of comings and goings for tennis in China. At the same time that the country lost its pioneering star, Li Na, to retirement, it played host to two brand-new tournaments: The WTA put on a Premier event in Wuhan, while the ATP inaugurated a 250 in Shenzhen. Li has made her exit, but her effect on the sport in her country lives on. Tennis’s Asian circuit, once little more than a promoters’ dream, becomes more of a reality, and a bigger part of the game, each season.

But it’s still not an easy one for those of us in the States to see. I caught what I could of Wuhan, which had a loaded draw, but my experience of it mostly consisted of waking up in the morning to the news that two, or three, or four more seeds had dropped. For those of you who couldn't catch much live tennis this week, here’s a look at five note-worthy developments that went on while you were sleeping.

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Chinese Check-In

Chinese Check-In

Serena Williams turns 33 today, and in some ways she seems stronger than ever. She just rolled over the field at the U.S. Open for her 18th Grand Slam singles title and 33rd overall—wouldn’t we all like to have a major for each year of our lives? But 2014 has also been a season of physical vulnerability for Serena. In her opening match in Wuhan, against Alizé Cornet, she retired near the end of the first set with what was described as a viral illness.

“I felt dizzy and nauseous in the first set and unfortunately couldn’t continue,” she said.

This was the second time Serena has retired due to illness this year, and it was a scary reminder of how she exited the doubles at Wimbledon. For a woman who has had even more serious health issues in the past, and who has more tennis to play next week in Beijing, it’s worrying.

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Since making his return to the tour in July, the Serb has gone 27-4 in Challengers and tour events. None of those wins was bigger than his 6-3, 6-4 upset victory over top seed David Ferrer in Shenzhen this week. As well as Troicki has played, his return shows how long for even a Top 30 player to rejoin to the main-draw elite. He has torn up the Challenger circuit so far, but as of today that still left him at No. 174 in the world.

Chinese Check-In

Chinese Check-In

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That was the headline I envisioned early in the week for this post. Wuhan was all carnage, all the time through its early days. Serena, Venus, Halep, Sharapova, Radwanska, Ivanovic, Jankovic, Errani, Cibulkova, Makarova, and Safarova were all gone before the quarters—Sharapova was the only one of them to survive until the third round.

But that’s not how the tournament ended up. The semifinals featured three recognizable names in Genie Bouchard, Caroline Wozniacki, and Petra Kvitova, as well as a quality young player in Elina Svitolina. And tomorrow’s final will pit Bouchard against Kvitova in a repeat of the Wimbledon title match.

After the first week of the U.S. Open, I wrote that the early surprises on the women’s side there were indicative of depth, rather than chaos, in the WTA. Looking back at the Wuhan draw, I think the same thing is true. Yes, there was a feeling of mayhem, but if you’ve been following along, few of the upsets came out of nowhere. Serena retired against Cornet, but a legitimate defeat wouldn’t have been a shock; Cornet has already beaten her twice this year. Halep lost to Muguruza, one of the breakout players of 2014. Radwanska and Venus both lost to Caroline Garcia, who has had a career season. Bacsinszky over Sharapova? Riske over Errani? OK, I didn’t see those coming.

More important, in the end we saw that even with all of the upsets, and even without Serena, Vika, and Li in the mix, the WTA can still close a tournament with a strong, big-name final.

I wrote at the start of the week that this felt like the right time for another surge by Ernests Gulbis. The majors, which seem to make him jumpy, were over, and any extra pressure he might have felt after his semifinal run in Paris has likely long since dissipated. So far Gulbis, who is in the semis in Kuala Lumpur, has lived up to my prediction. Ernests has long been compared to Marat Safin, a tightly wound player who was often at his best late in the season, when there was a little less on the line; nine of Safin’s 15 career titles came in events played after the U.S. Open. Last year Gulbis won a tournament in September in St. Petersburg before bombing out early in his last two events. We’ll see if he can improve on that and turn himself into tennis’s latest Legend of the Fall.

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Gulbis’ next opponent will be Julien Benneteau. The 32-year-old Frenchman has lost in the finals in Kuala Lumpur the last two seasons. In fact, he’s lost all nine finals he’s played in his 14-year career. This has to make Benneteau among the most accomplished male players never to win a singles title—he has 10 in doubles. If you’re looking for someone to root for on a slow ATP weekend, Jules could be your man.