Li Na wins fourth career title in Sydney
Li Na wins fourth career title in Sydney | 
World No.11 Li Na of China has won her fourth career WTA singles title with a dramatic 7-6(3) 6-3 win over third seed Kim Clijsters at the Medibank International Sydney on Friday night.
She has became the first player from China and only the third Asian player after Kimiko Date and Hyung Taik Lee to win the title.
Scoring just her second victory in six meetings against the three-time US Open champion, Li recovered from a torrid start to win the match in front of a large and enthusiastic Ken Rosewall Arena crowd.
Li said she was very happy to have won her first WTA Premier title in Sydney.
“I feel great. You know I play here many years. Every time I saw the names of the champion every year, I think about, Oh, when my name can should be there?,” Li said.
Also, when you walking to the centre court, you can see many pictures over there of the winners. So after today I was talk to my team (and say) ‘Oh, we come next year and we can see my picture over there also’. Yeah, feels great.”
The Belgian burst out of the blocks, reeling off the first five games in just 19 minutes as Li struggled to cleanly connect with numerous ground strokes.
But once she held for 1-5 Li gradually worked her way into the match, hitting deeper and with more venom while errors crept into the Clijsters’ game.
Having won five consecutive games of her own the momentum was well and truly with Li. And while Clijsters confidently held to love for 6-5 and led 3-1 in the subsequent tie-break, Li again surged, snatching the next six points to take a one-set lead after 48 minutes.
The world No.11 Li continued where she left off in the second set, breaking for 2-0. While she dropped serve straight away – Clijsters playing a deft drop shot on break point – Li returned the favour immediately, breaking Clijsters’s increasingly fragile serve and moving to 5-2.
Clijsters bravely held for 5-3 but Li served it out, securing her the title after one hour and 30 minutes.
It is her fourth career title and goes with those she won in Guangzhou, Gold Coast and Birmingham.
Playing in Australia seems to bring her good fortune because in 2010 she was also a semi-finalist at the Australian Open.
“I should move here,” Li suggested laughing. “I don’t know why (I play well here), because Australia always like the beginning of the season. So, yeah, sometimes I do well in the Gold Coast and sometimes I do well in Melbourne and sometimes I do well in Sydney.
This was the sixth meeting between Li and Clijsters and it’s the second victory for Li. Clijsters has won two of those in Sydney and had won their last meeting as well en route to the 2009 US Open title. The only time Li has won was in Miami in 2007 shortly before Clijsters announced her retirement.
“I think in her first couple of service games where I broke her I don’t think she made a lot first serves and I kind of always felt that I was able to put more pressure on her, especially with my forehand,” Clijsters said.
“Then I think I just softened the quality I think of my strokes. I wasn’t hitting quite as deep as before and not as aggressively, and she definitely took over very quickly.
“I wasn’t serving great. Gradually just you try to fight, but then it becomes frustrating, too, you know, that you are not able to play your best when you’re trying to.”
The women’s doubles final was won by Czech pair Iveta Benesova and Barbora Zahlavova Strycova over Kveta Peschke (Czech Republic) and Katarina Srebotnik(Slovenia) 4-6 6-4 10-7.
Topics: Kim Clijsters, Li Na
Share this article:
Follow 10SBALLS.COM on:
10sBalls Top Stories
- No Key Biscayne, No Problem; New Site, Same Great Miami Open Tennis Event
- 10SBALLS SHARES FAVORITE EPA TENNIS PHOTOS Of 2018
- THE PERFECT HOLIDAY GIFT FOR ANY TENNIS PLAYER & FAN
- ATP MEN’S TENNIS • WILL IT MOVE FROM LONDON TO MANCHESTER OR TOKYO OR SINGAPORE? OR TURIN?
- ALIX RAMSAY WRITES TO “TENNIS SANTA CLAUS” WITH HER WISHES • ANDY MURRAY!
- CALIFORNIA CHAMPIONSHIPS AT THE JACK KRAMER CLUB – DECEMBER 15 TO 22 2018 • UTR • ORACLE • AND AN AWESOME NEW TENNIS EVENT
- 10sBalls.com Shares Alix Ramsay’s Rambling On About Tennis and The Holidays
- ROGER FEDERER JOINED BY RAFA NADAL FOR THE 2019 LAVER CUP FESTIVITIES IN GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
- TENNIS PLAYERS’ UNION – IS IT NEEDED? BY MARK WINTERS
- Tennis News: Wilson’s Revolution Is Here – THE CLASH
- ROTTERDAM TENNIS TOURNEY DIRECTOR RICHARD KRAJICEK ANNOUNCES DAVID GOFFIN TO PLAY IN 2019 ABN AMRO
- JELENA VEMIC’S PHOTO GALLERY
- TENNIS NEWS FROM LONDON • 10SBALLS REPORTS ON THE LAWN TENNIS WRITERS HOLIDAY LUNCHEON AT WIMBLEDON’S DEBENTURE CLUB
- 10sBalls.com Shares a Great Gift For A Tennis Player – The Functional Tennis Match Journal
- BNP PARIBAS TENNIS OPEN NAMED 2018 WTA PREMIER MANDATORY TOURNAMENT OF THE YEAR FOR FIFTH STRAIGHT YEAR
In Case You Missed It
EUGENIE BOUCHARD NAMED 2018 TENNIS CANADA FEMALE PLAYER OF THE YEAR / EUGENIE BOUCHARD NOMMÉE JOUEUSE DE L’ANNÉE 2018 DE TENNIS CANADA
Tennis Canada announced on Wednesday that Eugenie Bouchard is the winner of the 2018 Excellence Awards in the Female Player of the Year and Singles Player of the Year categories.
TENNIS NEWS • CALIFORNIA CHAMPIONSHIPS • TOMMY HAAS, TAYLOR FRITZ, STEVE JOHNSON, MARDY FISH AND MORE
Time to get tickets to watch! Surly you have heard about The Largest Open Tennis Event in America!
TENNIS NEWS • RAFA NADAL CONFIRMS RETURN TO PRACTICE, EYES ABU DHABI EXHIBITION AND AUSTRALIAN SUMMER
According to Uncle Toni, Rafael Nadal was supposed to be back at practice on either Dec. 4 or 5. Well, better late than never!
Conchita Martínez prepara la temporada 2019 de Karolina Pliskova en Tenerife
Española y checa ya trabajaron juntas durante el pasado Open de Estados Unidos