News & Photos / Articles / Li holds nerve to dispose of Azarenka

Li Na reached her first ever French Open semi-final with a comfortable 7-5, 6-2 win over Victoria Azarenka on Wednesday. An initially tight match swung in the Chinese sixth seed's favour at the end of the first set, and thereafter she never looked back.

The first Chinese woman ever to have reached the quarter-final here at Roland Garros, Li thrives on the big stage, undaunted by the occasion or the implications of victory. A quarter-finalist or better at five of the last seven majors, she is a big match player par excellence.

Grand Slams bring out the best in her, and so did Victoria Azarenka today. The fourth seed's one-dimensional baseline game let Li show off her excellent footwork, complete with some classic clay-court sliding. The predictability of the Belarusian's heavy swinging meant Li was able to fine-tune her own shots.

The trouble is, Li's own baseline-hugging style was right up the Belarusian's street in the first set too, and a drawn-out stalemate ensued as the pair traded blows from a distance. Games, and breaks, were exchanged amid intermittent winners and errors, both forced and unforced.

Glass ceiling
This was the fourth time that Azarenka was trying (and failing) to go beyond the quarter-final stage of a Grand Slam, and rather than the glass ceiling, it was the Belarusian's service that cracked. At 5-6, a Li winner, a slip and a shank had her three set points down, and her opponent needed only one. The first set was in the bag at 7-5, in just under an hour.

Increasingly clean hitting allied to growing confidence made the Chinese no.6 seed an even trickier proposition in the second set. Though Azarenka rallied briefly, breaking to lead 2-1, her brittle belief betrayed her in the very next game, broken despite leading 40-0, and with Li at last introducing a touch of variety in length, the world no.4 was not up to the challenge thereafter. Four straight games went the Chinese woman's way and the match was hers.

The 7-5, 6-2 loss was a disappointing end to a Roland Garros campaign that had looked so promising for Azarenka, who had not dropped more than three games in a set up until today. As for Na Li, the sky is the limit. Maria Sharapova should have her running again on Thursday, but the Russian will need to mix her game up if she is not to go the same way as Azarenka…