Li Na destroys Maria Sharapova in 2nd round robin match – WTA Championships 2011
Li Na turned the tables on Maria Sharapova in the second round robin match to kick off the second day of the TEB BNP Paribas WTA Championships 2011 with a bang!
The challengers took up the gauntlet on indoor hard courts of the Sinan Erdem Dome in Istanbul, Turkey. Even though, Li had been struggling after her one hit wonder, yesterday she jumped right back on the winning track by ousting
Sharapova in straight sets of 7-6(4), 6-4 in simply one hour and fifty six minutes. In doing so; she ended Sharapova’s quest to becoming the world number one.
Li was unable to perform to her paramount capability post the French Open title where she became the only Asian to achieve that feat. The Chinese was unable to bag a match since August and even though she took part in two tournaments;
US Open and Beijing, she saw early round exits in both of them.
Nevertheless, she brought her A-game to the courts against Sharapova and initiated the first round of the match. Although, the players exchanged breaks in the first two games, they later matched an eye for an eye and kept the score
tied. As her assertive play kicked in, she battled from 2-4 to eventually push the set into a tie breaker by the end of the twelfth game.
The toe-to-toe run between the two had lost steam in the tiebreaker and even though, Sharapova got off to an amazing start by taking the lead 4-0. However, after a series of breaks and holds Li managed push a notch higher to clinch
the tiebreaker at 7-4 and was now one up in the match.
The second set of the match was initiated by Sharapova and she was able to open the scoreboard to 1-0 with a hold of serve. However, Sharapova dropped her service game in the third game and gave away a crucial breakpoint to Li,
who capitalized on the opportunity and took the lead.
During the seventh and the eighth game, the players bartered in breaks and Sharapova had managed to close in on the deficit from 2-5 to 4-5. However, Li eventually served for the match in the tenth game and sealed her victory of
the set and the match.
At the end of the match Li was extremely ecstatic and said, “I'm so happy I was able to beat Maria because she's a top player, and also today was my first match ever at the Championships, so I want to thank the entire crowd here
for supporting me”.
The Chinese superstar will now be facing Belarusian Victoria Azarenka in the third round robin match of the event.
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