The Chinese Challenge: Li Na
Widely touted as the Grand slam of Asia/Pacific, it would certainly be fitting for the Australian Open to have an Asian winner. And considering that China is the most populous country in the world, there’d be a certain statistical beauty, ceteris paribus,
in having a Chinese winner. Currently, the only player to fit this particular bill would be the Li Na, the 28 year old ninth seed at this year’s event.
Already in the quarter-finals, Li Na has been very impressive internationally over the last year or so. A semi-finalist at last year’s Australian Open, she has been consistently performing at a high level and has been a great success at grand slams, getting
to the quarters in the 2009 US Open and then repeating the feat at Wimbledon last year.
2011 started off well for Na, a victory over Venus Williams in the Hong Kong Classic being notable. In the Medibank International Sydney, Na gave a series of dominant performances, including a victory over the two-time grand slam winner, Svetlana Kuznetsova.
She followed this up with a straight sets victory over comeback queen Kim Clijsters in the final. This victory was record-setting; it was the first time any Chinese female tennis player had ever won a Tier one Women Tennis Association (WTA) tournament.
High on her success, Li Na entered this edition of the Australian Open seeded ninth. Her progression through the tournament so far has been very smooth. Her first match, against Swede Sofia Arvidsson, was a sitter which Na won 6-1, 7-5. In the second round,
she faced Russia’s Evginya Rodina, who was again outmatched by the Chinese player 6-3, 6-2. Czech Republic’s Barbora Zahlavova Strycova was Na’s next challenge. Na defeated her 6-2, 6-1and continued improving the score from her last game. In the fourth round,
Na faced her first real challenge of the tournament in the form of world number nine, Victoria Azarenka of Belarus. Victoria had progressed to the fourth round in both the singles and doubles tournaments dominantly. However, her good run in the singles was
cut short by Li Na, who dealt her a resounding 6-3, 6-3 defeat.
Na’s latest opponent was the 23 year old Andrea Petkovic. The 30th seeded German had earlier received a bye against the former champion, Venus Williams, who retired due to injury. In the following match the German showed her mettle, beating another
former champion, the current 14th seed and Russian beauty Maria Sharapova. The win was a dominant display by the 23-year-old, who closed the match 6-2, 6-3. After the win by Petkovic, Na was well-aware of the challenge that she posed. Na came into
the match with a definite game plan. Her ripping ground-strokes and angled forehands were too much for Petkovic to handle and she succumbed 6-2, 6-4.
Having gained Petkovic’s respect and backing for the title, the Chinese woman next faces Caroline Wozniacki, the current world No.1 and the likeliest winner of the tournament. This is a guaranteed tough test, with Wozniacki playing the level of tennis her
ranking warrants. Li Na will definitely have to raise the level of her game even higher to win the tournament, bringing glory to China and giving the Asian Slam an Asian Champ.
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