Wimbledon 2010 Day 8: S Williams v Na Li

Cilla texted me saying that she figured that the tourney organisers must be praying for Serena to go through now as the tourney was in all kinds of openness!
I was going to be watching Ree for the third time this tourney – mad- I normally end up catching Venus loads of times – oh well no more Venus!

I saw Serena take apart Zheng Jie completely in the semis a couple of years ago – where we’d all had hopes that that flat hitting style from a lot of the Chinese players would have perhaps made her think again….
But Li Na is one of those players who maybe through injury has not really realised her full potential.



Confident start by both players and some great rallies – Li’s strength was drawing Serena into rallies but again – both are more than capable at the net and Li had the ability to send balls back flat and low and with a fair degree of zing from the baseline – so there was no real chance for Serena to totally overpower her in that first set.







It was going to come down to a case of who would blink first – Li had a very nervy hold in the fifth and again in the 7th… Serena was beginning to show signs of exasperation that she couldn’t break through.
Li was leading at 5-4 after yet another nerve jangling hold but some specatular serving yips in the 11th and an untimely UE gave an increasingly dischuffed looking Serena that break. Not surprisingly, a spot of serving practice consolidated the break and gave her the set… but it had been a very competitive set – and there were high hopes that this was going to be another decent 3 setter.









However – after holds all round for the first three games Li got broken in the 5th and again to have Serena leading at 5-2. A sudden spurt of concentration (or maybe a lack of it from Serena) saw Li break her back with some breathtaking rallies and the crowd were whipped up good and proper … but alas Li got broken straight back to give Serena a straight sets win into the semis.







It was the first time I’d watched Li Na play and I wasn’t disappointed – but it was a shame that competitiveness and intensity dropped from her in the second as this had all the makings of a real cat and mouse game. Serena had been getting really frustrated at not being able to break in and if someone else can get her into those long rallies with corners and line painting… it might make for a great match. However – I fear it won’t be in the semi – maybe the final though.