Li Na fights back to oust Casey Dellacqua in round two – US Open 2012
World number eight, Li Na, continued to impress at the hard courts of New York during the second round of the US Open Championship when she locked horns with the 92nd ranked Aussie professional, Casey Dellacqua. She
won the match in straight sets 6-4, 6-4.
Dellacqua started off well with a serve hold but she was unable to repeat a similar control for the second time and gifted a breakpoint to her rival. The number one Chinese star made full use of that early breakthrough and continued
to pile pressure on her rival, courtesy to some mind-startling winners.
Li was close on dropping a breakpoint in the sixth game but she fought back well; saved her lead on two occurrences and posted a serve hold that dismantled the concentration of her rival who was furious to have not converted any
of the allotted breakpoints.
The ninth seed Chinese retained her lead until the end of the first set and stole the first phase away. Trailing a set down, Dellacqua looked a bit of depressed and disappointed by her performance and that clearly didn’t help
her cause at all.
Aussie professional commenced the second set in emphatic fashion; winning a breakthrough in the second game and taking a resounding lead of 3-0. She was well on course to enforce the final set into play especially after winning
another breakpoint in the fourth game and posting a comfortable lead of 4-0.
The Chinese star didn’t look behind and continued to fight back. The 30-year-old Li showed immense courage and stamina to fight back from a stage of four games down and won the following six games to complete the second round proceedings
in grand fashion.
She won three breakpoints in a row; firstly diminishing the lead to nil and then continued to flow with the momentum to settle the second set scores in her favour. A startling show from the ninth seed placed her against the 18-year-old
Briton superstar, Laura Robson, who ended the illustrious career of the former world number one Kim Clijsters, by winning two tie-breaker rounds in the second round contest.
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