Li Na breezes into the quarterfinal round of Internazionali BNL d’Italia
Fourth seeded Chinese Li Na cruised into the quarter-finals of the 2011 Internazionali BNL d’Italia, a clay court tournament held in Rome, Italy. She trashed Australian Jarmila Gajdosova with a breadstick on Thursday..
Ranked 6th in the WTA Premier rankings, Li took only sixty-four minutes to down the Australian, ranked 22 places below her, at Foro Italico. She earned a third straight win against 24-year-old Gajdosova and extended
her lead in their head-to-head series by 3-0.
The Chinese raged into the opening set and reeled off first three games in a row. She then held her remaining serves plausibly and broke the Australian’s serve again in the last game to clinch the set with an assuring 6-2 score
line.
Li produced an amazing first serve share of 79 percent as compared to Australian’s 35 percent and registered a convincing 70 percent win on it. She saved both breakpoint faced and converted two out of four breakpoint opportunities
to her advantage to help win easily.
The elder one raised her level of game in the final set and unleashed flurry of groundstrokes to reel off first three games in a row before Gajdosova could hold on. Li kept her momentum and won proceeding three games with her blistering
forehands to earn a breadstick.
She again produced a higher first serve share and smashed four aces in this second set. The Chinese saved both breakpoints conceded and converted both breakpoint opportunities to her advantage.
29-year-old had an awesome start of the season after winning the title at Sydney. She then extended her winning streak to 11-0 before reaching to final of Melbourne Grand Slam. In the final, she lost to third seed, Belgian Kim
Clijsters, after which her form dipped and she produced a five match losing streak. However, she raised her form at Madrid two weeks back and made a semi-final berth before entering this tournament in full of confidence
Up next for Li is the winner of the match between Russian Elena Vesnina and Hungarian Greta Arn. Vesnina stunned eight seeded Polish Agnieszka Radwanska in a three set thriller and the Hungarian downed Italian wild card Alberta
Brianti in straight sets to reach this spot.
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