Li Na wins fourth career title in Sydney

Written by: Staff on 15th January 2011

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