Australian Open: Li cruises to second grand slam title

Fourth seed defeats Cibulkova 7-6, 6-0 to win women’s final in third attempt.

MELBOURNE:

China’s Li Na stormed to her second Grand Slam title on Saturday, battling past underdog Dominika Cibulkova to win the Australian Open and give another huge boost to Asian tennis.

The fourth seed’s 7-6 (7/3), 6-0 win crowned her the champion on her third attempt after losing the 2011 and 2013 finals, adding to the French Open title she won three years ago.

In doing so, she became the oldest winner of the women’s title, surpassing Margaret Court who was 30 when she became champion in 1973.

“I finally got here,” she said, praising her husband Jiang Shan and coach Carlos Rodriguez. “Thanks Carlos. He always believed that I could do well.”

The win pushes her one place higher in the world rankings to three, just 11 points adrift of Victoria Azarenka in second behind Serena Williams.



While the diminutive Cibulkova, nicknamed the ‘pocket rocket’, has been in the best form of her life, Li was the favourite and used her experience to take out the Slovak.

“This has been a fantastic two weeks of my life and I think I’m going to cry,” said a tearful Cibulkova, the first person from her country to make a Grand Slam final.

“I would like to congratulate Li Na, she had a fantastic tournament. She deserves to be here as a winner.”

The victory helps Li make up for the misery of losing the final twice before when she was a set up against both Kim Clijsters in 2011 and Victoria Azarenka last year.

Nadal closes in on all-time greatness

Statistically, Rafael Nadal is not yet the greatest player of all time but the Spaniard is edging his way towards that honour with each Grand Slam title.

The wonder left-hander with his extraordinary levels of energy and brute strength is poised for his 14th Grand Slam trophy in Sunday’s Australian Open final against Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka.

Should he win, Nadal would be just three major titles behind Roger Federer’s record of 17, and closing in fast.



However, Nadal won’t sell Wawrinka short in the final, saying that past matches mean little in the context of a high-pressure major final.

“For me, if you play in a Grand Slam final that’s a different kind of match than I played against him in the past,” said Nadal.

“He’s playing better than ever. He’s a player that is ready to win against everybody. If I don’t play my best tennis, I am sure that he will win three sets against me.”

Should he defeat Wawrinka for his second Australian Open title, he will become only the third man along with Roy Emerson and Rod Laver to win each of the four Grand Slam titles twice.



Meanwhile, Wawrinka said his past record against Nadal had not entered his thoughts and he was heading into his first grand slam final with a lot of confidence.

“The record is not what I’m looking at,” he said. “I don’t care about having lost 12 times.“But I had some good matches against him last year, close ones. I have more confidence in myself.” 

Published in The Express Tribune, January 26^th, 2014.

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