World No.8 Li Na of China has won her fourth career WTA singles title with a dramatic 7-6(3) 6-3 win over No.3 Kim Clijsters at the Medibank International Sydney on Friday night.
Scoring just her second victory in six meetings against the three-time US Open champion, Li recovered from a torrid start to win the US$103,000 first prize.
Clijsters burst out of the blocks, reeling off the first five games in just 19 minutes as Li struggled to cleanly connect with numerous groundstrokes.
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 Belgian’s 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 first WTA Premier-level title after one hour, 30 minutes.
The win makes Li the only the second Asian woman to win the title here after Japan’s Kimiko Date-Krumm collected the 1994 championship. She’s also the first Chinese woman to win a WTA Premier title.World No.8 Li Na of China has won her fourth career WTA singles title with a dramatic 7-6(3) 6-3 win over No.3 Kim Clijsters at the Medibank International Sydney on Friday night.
Scoring just her second victory in six meetings against the three-time US Open champion, Li recovered from a torrid start to win the US$103,000 first prize.
Clijsters burst out of the blocks, reeling off the first five games in just 19 minutes as Li struggled to cleanly connect with numerous groundstrokes.
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 Belgian’s 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 first WTA Premier-level title after one hour, 30 minutes.
The win makes Li the only the second Asian woman to win the title here after Japan’s Kimiko Date-Krumm collected the 1994 championship. She’s also the first Chinese woman to win a WTA Premier title.
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