Li Na battles past Petra Kvitova to advance into the quarter-finals – French Open 2011
Sixth seeded Chinese, Li Na rallied past ninth seeded Czech Petra Kvitova in a three set match to advance into the quarter-finals of the Roland Garros 2011, a major clay court tournament held in Paris, France on Monday. 29-year-old
lost her concentration in the opener set but later outmuscled the Czech to register a 2-6, 6-1, 6-3 victory.
Ranked seven in the Sony Ericsson WTA Premier rankings, Li outshined Kvitova, ranked only two places below her, in one hour and forty-four minutes to book a last eight spot. After earning this victory at Stade Roland Garros, the
Chinese levelled the scores in the head-to-head series by 1-1 against Kvitova.
Kvitova stormed at court Philippe Chatrier and held her opening serve to level the scores at 1-1. She found the coveted break in the third game with the help from her blistering forehand winners. The Czech then held her serve in
the proceeding game to extend her lead to 3-1. Kvitova kept her momentum to keep her remaining serves convincingly and got a double-break in the seventh game with the help from poor serves by the Chinese to pocket the set with a 6-2 victory in thirty-three
minutes.
21-year-old clobbered more unforced errors i.e. twelve to Li’s eight and produced a lower first serve share of 52 percent as compared to Chinese’s 62 percent, however, the Czech registered a spectacular 75 percent win on it. In
addition to this, she saved all five breakpoints and converted two out of three breakpoint opportunities to her advantage.
The Chinese, on the other side of net, re-focused back into the game. A finalist at the 2011 Australian Open, Li re-created her magic in the second set and after Kvitova held her serve in the second game, she unleashed flurry of
ground strokes to reel off next five games in a row and clinched with a breadstick.
The world number seven produced a much better first serve share of 83 percent and earned an exceptional 87 percent win on it. She also took full advantage of the many unforced errors the Czech committed and with the help of eight
winners, Li won comfortably.
Li lost her way into the decider and was trailing 0-3 when she roared back by winning the next six games in a row through exceptional forehands from her arsenal of skills. She saved one out of two breakpoints and converted three
out of four breakpoint opportunities to her advantage to seal the set by winning six games to three.
The Chinese will next face the winner of the match between fourth seeded Belarusian Victoria Azarenka, and Russian Ekaterina Makarova.
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