Li Na upsets Agnieszka Radwanska to reach the semi-finals – Australian Open 2013
Former French Open champion, Li Na, pulled out a stunner at the Melbourne Park on Tuesday afternoon when she outplayed the hot favourite world number four, Agnieszka Radwanska, in the quarter-final round of the Australian Open.
The sixth seeded Chinese had to go through one hour and 42 minutes of gruelling play to settle the final score line at 7-5, 6-3, in her favour. Her upset victory over the fourth seeded Pole propelled the Chinese number one into the semi-final round of the
Grand Slam Down Under.
Radwanska has been absolutely belligerent in the initial four rounds, winning all her matches in straight sets and was rated among the hot favourites for winning the mega event in Melbourne. She defeated Li Na not more than two
weeks ago in Sydney to claim the season-opening title but it the payback time for the Chinese veteran. Li Na had to labour extremely hard to put away the solid resistance from the fourths seed Pole in the opening set but once she got into her winning groove,
she never looked back at the superior-ranked rival. She cruised through the second set of the match to register a comprehensive victory.
"This time I'm fit - last time I was a little bit tired of the travelling," Li said about her loss to Radwanska in Sydney earlier this month. "At the Grand Slams you can play one day and the other days you have off. So this time
I was feeling much, much better. Also, with the day off, you can prepare yourself."
Li Na broke her opponent six out of seven times and banged in 32 cracking winners in comparison to Radwanska’s mere 10. The fourth ranked Pole also broke the Chinese serve on four different occasions but kept loosing crucial points
to remain on her back foot throughout the contest.
"She played better than she did in Sydney," Radwanska said. "Definitely she was very solid from the beginning of the match. Some of the games she didn't let me do anything. Very deep balls all the time, good serve - she was really
playing well."
Sixth seed Li Na will next face the former champion and the world number two, Maria Sharapova, in the semi-final battle of the Grand Slam event.
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