Of all the wannabe Grand Slam champions circling this year's French Open women's singles title, few have flown as far below the radar as Li Na. The Chinese woman's personal brand of conservative, carefully-calculated tennis again paid dividends at Roland Garros on Thursday however, helping her overcome testing conditions to demolish Maria Sharapova's campaign for a career Grand Slam 6-4, 7-5, and advance to the second major final of her career.
Sharapova was a shadow of the player who dismantled Andrea Petkovic at the quarter-final stage of this event. Where yesterday the no.7 seed impressed with her winner-to-unforced error count, today her game was haphazard, 16 unforced errors clocked up in an opening set played in some of the windiest conditions seen at Roland Garros this tournament.
As Sharapova self-destructed, Li forged on unperturbed, playing the well-measured brand of tennis that has seen her carve a methodical path through the women's draw over the past 12 days. Disciplined and precise, the Chinese woman played out each point meticulously. Time and again she exposed the limitations of Sharapova's footwork, dragging her opponent out wide to the backhand, then striking blow after winning blow off her deceptively ferocious forehand.
Li broke Sharapova's opening service game of the match for a 2-0 lead, and allowed her opponent to get just one game on the board in the first five. Her game riddled with unforced errors, Sharapova still somehow managed to break Li twice during the opener, getting the match back on service with a break in the seventh game for 3-4 and, having surrendered that break back to Li in the next game, breaking again in the ninth game as no.6 seeded Li served for the set at 4-5. But having created opportunities, Sharapova simply could not make her own service count, winning just 45 percent of points when she managed to get her first delivery into court - statistics which simply did not stand up in the face of Li's commanding game.
Stringing together some testing returns in the tenth game of the match, Li advanced to a 40-0 lead on Sharapova's service (via a fifth double fault from the Russian), her never-say-die willingness to field Sharapova's angled drives paying dividends. Chasing down everything on her first set point, Li watched helplessly from the tramlines as her opponent closed in mid-court for a forehand kill shot, only to see the ball clip the tape and bounce out. The Australian Open 2011 finalist headed to the chair leading three-time Grand Slam champion Sharapova 6-4 after 50 minutes.
The second set was closer, Sharapova shaking off the listlessness that afflicted her in the opener to break Li's serve and take a 1-0 lead. Better serving by the Russian saw her hold her first service game of the match for 2-0 but even as she celebrated that milestone, Li was formulating a comeback.
Sharapova maintained her advantage, winning service comfortably in the first half of the second set, but Li stayed with her opponent, refusing to be daunted by the one-break margin. Continuing to rack up winners with perfectly-timed forehands, the no.6 seed broke back in the eighth game of the second set to level the score at 4-4, setting her sights on a second tilt at a Grand Slam title as Sharapova railed at the dust storms regularly interrupting her play on Philippe Chatrier Court.
Sharapova had points to break the Li service for a 5-4 lead but failed to convert, and while she played a well-constructed game on her own service to keep things level at 5-5, a subsequent love service game by Li left the Russian looking rattled and weary.
Playing cautious tennis, Sharapova's short balls, and her ninth double fault for the match, made her a sitting duck for the meticulous Li who crafted two match point opportunities for herself after one hour and 48 minutes of play.
Cheered ardently by the Chinese Ambassador, Kong Quan, and the President of the Chinese Tennis Federation, Ms Zhang Caizhen, Li needed to do no more, Sharapova striking yet another double fault to send her 29-year-old opponent into the French Open final, 6-4, 7-5.
Martina
I hope they win
well it´s all :)
