Li Na takes down Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova for a place in semi-final – New Haven Open 2011
World number seven Li Na overcame Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia on Thursday 6-4, 3-6, 6-2 on Thursday to advance in to the semi-final of 2011 New Haven Open here in New Haven Open, United States.
Seeded second at the Women’s Tennis Association tournament, Li Na has looked in commanding form since the start of this week. Giving impressive results in her last three matches of the competition, she is playing very confidently
right now.
The running year has proved to be quite a good one for the Chinese tennis-pro. At the 2011 French Open championships, she defeated Francesca Schiavone in the final to become the first ever Asian player to win a Grand Slam tournament.
Following her consistent performances on the WTA tour, she improved her rankings considerably.
The quarterfinal match at the Connecticut Tennis Centre on Thursday was interrupted by several rain delays. Originally scheduled to start at 1pm, the match did not start until half past two in the afternoon. It took the whole afternoon
and a part of evening to finally conclude the result of the contest.
Li Na took the opening set that was briefly delayed by rain. The Chinese led the game score 4-3, when the rain started to come down. On her return, she held on to her advantage to take the set score lead. It seemed as if she will
complete a comfortable win against the 20-year-old Russian. However Pavlyuchenkova had other ideas.
The second set started after a delay of nearly two hours. Pavlyuchenkova raised the level of her game and she played her natural game freely. She rallied to win the second set as the match entered the third and final set. However,
the Russian injured her ankle near the baseline in the very first game of the set.
"I twisted it quite badly and got really scared because I heard a crack," Pavlyuchenkova said. "I wasn't able to move the same way as before, couldn't move fast enough. Then she started playing more aggressive, more moving me around,
I guess, due to my injuries. She was smarter, moving me more."
Li Na came out firing in the decider. Breaking her opponent at regular intervals, she took an impassable lead and then consolidated to complete an emphatic victory in the quarterfinal that ended at 7:53 pm in evening.
"It was tough," the 29-year-old Na said. "Like you really play on the court already, but suddenly rain was coming, you have to cool down and warm up again."
Her opponent in the semi-final will be Petra Cetkovska, who stunned Frenchwoman Marion Bartoli to reach that far.
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