Stretching in vain for another Petra Kvitova blast, Li Na stared up at the sky wearing the woozy expression of a woman suddenly spit out of a revolving door after several spins. Crushing shots into the corners, Kvitova won nine of the first 11 games leaving a reeling Li to contemplate her options during a coaching consultation with husband/sparring partner Jiang Shan.
“He say, ‘If you [continue to] play like this, you will lose the match easy,’ Li recalled with a smile.
Li dialed in and Kvitova spaced out. Four points from sealing a spot in the final—and a chance to play for the No. 1 ranking—Kvitova could not close and sometimes couldn't find the court. The defending champion Li delivered a remarkable reversal in winning nine of the last 11 games to storm into the Sydney final with a 1-6, 7-5, 6-2 comeback.
It was Li’s ninth consecutive Sydney victory, which snapped Kvitova’s 14-match win streak, dating back to her second-round loss in Beijing last October. The second-ranked Czech would have surpassed Caroline Wozniacki as world No. 1 if she had won the title this week. But the oldest woman in the Top 10 denied Kvitova’s climb by competing with the resilience she showed in last year's French Open, when in the fourth round she dug out of a 0-3 third-set deficit against Kvitova on her way to her first major title.
The rematch was a mismatch for one set.
The fourth seed from China beat another Czech lefthander—Kvitova’s Fed Cup teammate Lucie Safarova—in a quarterfinal that should have been ideal preparation, but Li looked befuddled by the southpaw spin and pace of Kvitova’s drives.
Eighteen minutes into the match, Li finally got on the scoreboard. Squatting low and using her legs to absorb Kvitova’s drives, she matched the Wimbledon winner blow for blow, finally drawing an error to hold for 1-4. It was a brief reprieve as Kvitova terrorized Li’s serve, winning 12 of 18 points played on her first serve and breaking three times to take the opening set in 26 minutes.
In the fourth game of the second set, Kvitova won a tense tug-of-war that spanned 18 points, converting her seventh break point for a 3-1 lead. Down 4-5, Li found another gear to her game and began landing shots inside the lines. Li won eight of the last nine points in the one-hour second set that she sealed with a forehand winner.
Physically, Kvitova has the skills to be No.1. Mentally, she must learn to play every point with complete concentration; she slipped into a walkabout in committing 22 unforced errors in a sloppy second set.
Changing direction effectively to force the 6' Wimbledon winner to bend for low balls on the run, Li broke to start the third set and later staved off two break points in holding for 4-2 as Kvitova bounced her Wilson racquet in disgust. Li saved 10 of 14 break points in the match and will face third-seeded Victoria Azarenka in the final.
—Richard Pagliaro
