Australian Open: Brilliant Li Na Ends Up Second-Best

By
at Internationaled.org

Published: January 30, 2011

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It wasn’t a masked ball at the Rod Laver Arena on Saturday, yet the final moments led to some spontaneous unmasking. Kim Clijsters of Belgium told the fans in the stadium that they could finally call her Aussie Kim, while Li Na was very cross with her own supporters, claiming they were trying to coach her in Chinese what to do mid-point.

Li Na has been the story of the tournament, and to her credit she has put a face to China and broadly some would say even to Asia. Her on-court interviews have delighted people across the world, and her tennis has won her many admirers. It was the first Grand Slam final for Li and also a first for the large continent. She rose to the occasion and came out firing in the first set. The experienced Clijsters was taken by surprise and she had no answers to the power and accuracy of the Chinese star.

It was something that even Clijsters acknowledged later. “She did everything better than me in that first set,” said Clijsters. “Her ground strokes were heavier, deeper, she served better and she returned better. She was playing really well, probably the best she has ever played against me.”

Clijsters was playing well, but Li was playing brilliantly and she took nine out of the first 14 games. That was where things started slipping away from her. Once her clear-sightedness was clouded by impatience, Li got flustered and struggled to get her composure back. She won just three out of the last 13 games as Clijsters tightened her defence and saw her opponent make a host of unforced errors.

Earlier, Clijsters needed some help from Li to get back into the contest and it was her experience and the relative inexperience of her opponent that turned the tide. “I tried to do things differently to break her rhythm a little bit and make her think a little bit more,” Clijsters said. “I mixed it up a little bit, put some slices in, also hit a few higher s...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Tennis

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