On 4 November 2019, he reached his highest ATP singles ranking of 194.
His highest doubles ranking of 136 was achieved on 28 February 2011.
In December 2018 Li defeated his compatriot Ze Zhang in three sets to win the 2019 Australian Open Asia-Pac Wildcard Play-off, which secured a wildcard place for Li to make his grand slam singles debut aged 32 at the 2019 Australian Open.