Maria Sharapova knocks-out Li Na in the semis – China Open 2012
Former world number one, Maria Sharapova, showed no respect at all to the local number one player, Li Na, semi-final of the China Open in Beijing and clobbered her to straight sets defeat with the scores of 6-4, 6-0. A battle of
an hour and 41 minutes witnessed a world class battering from one side of the court to another.
It was all about the second seed Russian who wasted little time in ousting her rival for the eighth time in the professional career. Sharapova’s first five victories against Li came in the years from 2005-2009. However, the 30-year-old
Chinese won four games in three years to lower the trail but the current season witnessed a comeback from the Russian blonde who ousted Li on three different occurrences and none of them being a battle lower than a quarter-final of the tour.
On Saturday, the 25-year-old Russian was powered down in the opening game to an extent where she had to survive a breakpoint and three deuces to hold serve. The chants from the crowd helped the Chinese superstar to roll past her
opponent easily in the second game. The Russian failed to handle the onslaught in the third game and gifted the breakpoint to her rival.
It seemed like Sharapova was not been able to show her strength at all in the contest; committed several unforced errors in the hunt to hit the ball extremely hard. However, the change in the game plan for the second ranked Russian
helped her to clasp a breakthrough back in the sixth game. No drama was witnessed in the following three games before Sharapova repeated another startling performance to sneak a breakpoint as well as the opening set.
There was no stopping for the Russian in the second set. She held her serve thrice in succession; losing just five points in total in between the games. On the other hand, Sharapova didn’t allow a single serve hold to her rival;
winning three breakpoints on the trot to register a bagel against Li.
Maria Sharapova awaits the winner of the clash between Victoria Azarenka and Marion Bartoli to meet in the final showdown on Sunday.
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