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| Victoria Azarenka |
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| Sloane Stephens |
The sentiment rolling over the Rod Laver Arena was so with Li Na it threatened to drown the champion, Victoria Azarenka,
in righteousness. The crowd, the American and Australian TV networks –
the ballkids too probably – everyone wanted the charming Chinese player
to win the Australian Open to beat the vilain du jour who had hustled the sweet American teenage prodigy Sloane Stephens out of the semi-finals with her blatant gamesmanship.
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| Li Na |
Azarenka was better than Li, by a decent bit at
the end. She served efficiently, at 78% on her first effort, to a poor
48% return for Li, whose unforced error count was catastrophic in the
end: 57, with 30 on her backhand as her wrists failed to roll tough
enough through the shot.
"I was
expecting way worse – but I thought Li Na played some great tennis," she
said.
Azarenka fought so hard to survive in the first set, saving
four set points, before throwing it away with a double fault, and the
expulsion of joy in the arena was a communal snarl in her direction. It
must have taken all her fortitude to ignore it – and she is not known
for that quality.
Li Na won the last French Open and did very well against Victoria Azarenka, despite injuries during the game Li Na fought back and proved to the world that she is a great tennis player.
guardian.co.uk
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