No Chinese player, male or female, has ever appeared in a Grand Slam singles final before.
But Thursday, on a sun-splashed afternoon at the Australian Open, Li Na, a funny young lady with a great sense of humor, made history for Chinese sport by reaching the final of a Grand Slam championships with a win over the world No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki 3-6, 7-5, 6-3.
On Saturday evening, Li Na will play Kim Clijsters, whom she beat in the final at Sydney two weeks ago. The Belgian ended Vera Zvonareva's chance at a trip to her third straight Grand Slam final rather decisively, 6-3, 6-3.
Apparently Li Na, who is coached by her husband, Jiang Shan, did not have a very good night's sleep. Being interviewed on court after her victory by the former British No. 1 Samantha Smith, she said, "I wake up every hour. My husband goes ..." and she promptly gave an imitation of a man snoring. And what motivated her to keep fighting after Wozniacki had reached match point at the end of the second set? "Prize money!" she replied with a huge grin.
There will be plenty of it for a player who has already banked $3.3 million during her career and is now guaranteed a further $2.2 million if she wins or $1.1 million if she loses on Saturday. But she has already been telling us that her husband controls her credit card so shopping may be limited. But her revenge for that may come tonight. "Maybe he stay in the bathroom. Yeah ..." she mused when asked about her sleep problems. As for Jiang himself, he was found on the players' terrace after Li's victory, chatting to friends and chain smoking. Li Na's trainer, Germany's Alex Stober, confirmed that Li is a very happy person who is always joking with members of her team and then, pointing at the cigarette in Jiang's hand, added with a shrug, "What can you do?"
Not a lot, apparently, but it is obvious that Li Na's improvement in recent months has come from having a settled team around her. Stober, one of the most experienced tennis trainers in the world, having begun in his career on the ATP tour in the 1980's, can take some of the credit for that.
Li Na needed to be fit to get through this match. Wozniacki is the personification of the defensive player while Li Na likes to attack – a difference between the two players that is confirmed by the stats. Li Na hit 42 winners to the Dane's 10 while she made 51 unforced errors compared to her opponent's 24.
"I make a lot of mistakes in the first set and at the beginning of the second set," Li Na admitted. "After saving match point (with a forehand winner) I was thinking, like OK, now a chance. But it's tough to play against her. She's running – I was feeling some shot I can hit winner but every time she just back on the ball, back on the ball. This is tough for me and for all players."
Given the extent to which she dominated the early stages, this was a match Wozniacki really should have won. But you cannot waste opportunities at this level and she knows it. "I still had chances even though I had lost match point," she said. I was serving, I had opportunities to go to 6 all (in the second set). I had a lot of chances. I just didn't take them. If you don't take them, you lose the match."
The match lasted 2 hours 35 minutes and although the heat was not too bad, the duel took its toll physically on both players, especially Wozniacki who was a step slow at the end as she tried to dig out more of those fast, low bouncing cross court forehands from her Chinese opponent. That is Li Na's big weapon but, in the last two games of the match, it was three sudden backhand winners down the line that caught the Dane out of position and sent Li Na on the path to her historic victory.
The aggressive player won the second semifinal as well. On the day that her compatriot, Justine Henin, pulled down the curtain on her illustrious but injury-damaged career for a final time, Clijsters ensured Belgian tennis would remain in the headlines by totally outplaying Zvonareva, just as she had done in the US Open final last September. Having lost in one final and four semifinals here, Clijsters has given herself another chance of adding the Australia title to the three she has won at the U.S. Open in what will be her eighth Grand Slam final.
"You appreciate them more as you get older," she said. "Obviously in my situation (with a family) I am not going to be coming back here much longer so you want to make the most of these opportunities."
Zvonareva knew she had been outplayed. "The quality of my shots weren't good enough today," she said. "She was playing fast and maybe that affected my game a little bit. I was playing too short and passive."
Neither Clijsters nor Li Na is likely to be playing short or passive in the final, which should make for a good contest — one that is certain to be watched by untold millions of Chinese.
