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Kim Clijsters Wins 2011 Australian Open Final: How "Aussie Kim" Defeated Li Na
Published: January 29, 2011
Li raced out to an opening set lead from her solid power-hitting base, but Clijsters responded, reacted and changed her game to take the final two sets and, with it, her first ever Happy Slam title.
Clijsters’ comeback hinged on much more than unforced errors, instead featuring elite defense and a series of tactical moves and inch-perfect ground strokes that battered Li into submission.
Here’s a brief breakdown and analysis of a few ways Clijsters toppled Li and truly earned the right to call herself “Aussie Kim.”
You can see where this women's final ranks in the last decade by viewing my slideshow here.
First set
Li Na made the most of the break point chances she earned in the first set, but it was all set up by decent serving, backhands down the line and cross-court forehands.
Although Li’s first-serve percentage (62 percent) was below her tournament average (70 percent), it was clear that her gameplan was to attack the Clijsters forehand with the first serve and then go to the backhand with the slower second serve.
The image on the left shows the service pattern (with first serves highlighted with red dots), while the graphic on the right shows the winners that she hit.
Clijsters, usually so strong from the baseline on the backhand side, didn't seem to have a great idea what to do with the hard, flat ground strokes of Li, and she made a number of unexpected errors from the middle of the court that seemed out of character.
The graphic below shows that Clijsters struggled most when she was dealing not with angled balls hit to the edges of the court, but with low balls deep on her backhand wing.
These weren't generally shots where she wa...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Tennis
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