Victoria Azarenka beats injury-stricken Li Na to retain the title – Australian Open 2013
Reigning world number one, Victoria Azarenka, held her Australian Open title at the hard courts of Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne on the eve of Saturday. She bounced back a set down against the Chinese workhorse, Li Na, who was a
bit unlucky to incur an ankle injury twice during the second and third set that disrupted her momentum. The 23-year-old Belarusian won an epic three-setter finale in two hours and 40 minutes with the final score line of 4-6, 6-4, 6-3.
Li was well on course to settle the head-to-head scores against the top seed Belarusian after a whopping 45 minutes first set triumph. She failed to hold serve at the start of the encounter but jumped back with a double breakthrough
to post a lead of 3-1. Both players traded breakpoints that kept the lead of the 30-year-old Chinese intact. Azarenka tried her best to fight back and got a breakthrough in the ninth game of the match but failed to protect it with a serve hold and lost the
opening set battle.
The Defending Champion regrouped and hit the courts again with a new willpower; hammered her rival to a massive trail of 0-3. However, the Chinese pushed her way back to equalise the scores by the end of the eighth game. Li was
close on winning the second Grand Slam title of her career but she couldn’t absorb the pressure and lost a breakpoint which was followed up with a serve hold to love by Azarenka which enforced the deciding battle into play.
The final set witnessed a swap of breakthroughs at the start. Both players held their serves to push the scores at 2-2. It was that moment when the Chinese fell apart awkwardly on her left ankle and twisted it badly for the second
time. She failed to hold serve and went down a trail of 2-4. The pain kept on limiting her strokes and movement and at the end she surrendered in the ninth game of the final set; dropping another breakpoint.
It was a brilliant match-up between the two athletes who were poised marvellously for the title throughout the encounter.
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