Li Na outplays Sabine Lisicki to book a spot in the quarter-finals – Sony Ericsson Open 2012
Chinese number one, Li Na, finally manages to put aside the German tennis ace, Sabine Lisicki, in the fourth round clash of the Sony Ericsson Open on Monday. She dug deep to register an emphatic comeback; battling for just over
a couple of hours time and registering final scores of 3-6, 6-4, 6-2.
Lisicki started the encounter with a serve hold and a breakthrough. The Chinese did the same in the following two games in a different order; breaking her opponent’s serve and then diminishing the trail with a serve hold. Scores
progressed to 2-2.
The German professional picked up the momentum in the sixth game and broke serve for the second time in the set that proved to be the turning point. She thumped her opponent in the following games and confirming a set lead that
exerted immense pressure on her rival.
Stunning, the momentum swirled in favour of the Chinese starlet in the second set. She broke serve in the fourth game and took a resounding lead of 4-1. Everyone thought that the German was once again going to bow down early after
winning the first set but she fought back into the contest; won the following three games including a breakthrough and levelled the scores at 4-4.
Unfortunately for the German, she was not able to hold the Chinese contestant for long. Li registered the second and final breakthrough of the set in the 10th game. It helped her to tie the set scores at one apiece and
improve her odds of winning the contest.
The momentum was with the 30-years-old Chinese who grabbed the first breakthrough of the final set in the fourth game and took a lead of 4-1 in the meantime. Both players swapped breakpoints in the following three games that confirmed
the triumph for the eighth ranked Chinese who will definitely feel more accomplished after this triumph having witnessed a very terrible season so far.
Li Na will lock horns with the Russian tennis icon, Maria Sharapova. It will be interesting to see if the Chinese player has enough legs to go pass the second ranked Russian and book a spot in the semis.
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