2011 Medibank International: Li Na overcomes Bojana Jovanovski to reach the final
The professional tennis ace from China Li Na has made her way into the title battle of the 2011 Medibank International tournament on Thursday. Eighth seed Chinese got the better of Bojana Jovanovski, a teenager from Serbia, in two sets to confirm her spot
in the finals. The score line was 7-6(5), 6-3. The battle lasted for a time period of one hour and thirty nine minutes.
"It was not easy. I mean, she is young, she is playing well. At the beginning of the match I did not know how she played because I have never seen her practice or play a match. It was like, 'What's going on?', I was asking my team. Yeah, I was lucky I can
finally win the match,” said Li of Bojana after her victory.
Li, on her way to victory, won 77% points off her opening serve and blasted 22 winners to emerge victorious in the end. The right hander, who will next take part in the upcoming Australian Open in Melbourne, will be in quest for her fourth career crown in
the final on Friday.
She will face the winner of the match between Russian Kim Clijsters and Alisa Kleybanova of Russia.
Bojana started off strongly and surprised the Chinese by taking a break point during the third game of the opening set. The number one Chinese, however, utilized all her experience to bounce back in the match during the eighth game; however, she was once
again pushed backward by the Serbian in the following game. Bojana further strengthened her lead by breaking again and therefore Li had to work extremely hard to level the scores. In the end, the opening set went to a tie break where Li triumphed at 7-6(5).
In the decisive set, Li did well to quickly take a lead during the third game, followed by another one in the seventh to stay ahead of Serbian at 5-2. However, the enthusiastic Bojana was not ready to give up and thus bounced back in the following game to
put some pressure on the Chinese. At last, Li sealed win after breaking Bojana in the ninth game to confirm her spot in the title battle.
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