Li Na conquers Klara Zakopalova to grab the title – Shenzhen Open 2013
Chinese top seed, Li Na, didn’t disappoint the crowd despite a strong resistance by the 28th ranked Czech age-fellow, Klara Zakopalova, at the hard courts of Shenzhen Open on Saturday. She started the new season with
a title under her belt; clinching the victory in three sets with the scores 6-3, 1-6, 7-5.
A battle that witnessed gruelling tennis lasted a fraction over two hours and four minutes. Li was under the cosh, had lost two of the three battles in the past against the 30-year-old Czech but stayed firm and closed out the first
edition of the WTA International-Level tournament in China with a triumph.
No aces were witnessed throughout the encounter that clearly demonstrates the zero level of dominance from the athletes. Huge roars from crowd at the start helped Li to step up the gear with a breakthrough in the first return game.
However, the Czech visitor instantaneously fought back to equalize at 2-2.
Former French Open Champion squeezed a breakthrough in the sixth game of the opening set that reposted her two game lead. Zakopalova tried her best to fight back but couldn’t drag her opponent out of the comfort zone and lost the
opening phase.
Despite a first set loss, the visitor kept her head up and showed her class with majestic winners down the line and across the court to take a commanding lead of 4-0 in the second phase of play. She dropped just one breakpoint
on her way to a marvellous victory in the second set. The pressure of winning the match against an inferior ranked counterpart at home was taking a toll on the top seed Chinese.
Both players broke their rival’s serve in the first two games of the final battle before the seventh ranked Chinese clinched a serve hold to settle the nerves. Three successive breakthroughs at Shenzhen helped Li to mount a lead
of 4-2 on her rival and a critical serve hold made it 5-2.
In a do or die game, Zakopalova broke serve to keep the set alive and pushed the scores to 5-5 with a serve hold. Li was under the cosh again but she did well to win a close breakpoint in the 12th game that rounded off
the final showdown.
The fifth seed Zakopalova made a strong statement by digging deep and almost extracting a title victory at Shenzhen against a Grand Slam Champion. It will help her a lot in the future endeavours for sure.
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