Australian Open: Li Na advances to third round

Melbourne, Jan 16 (IANS) Sixth-seed Chinese tennis player Li Na survived a second-set scare en route to the third round of the Australian Open here Wednesday.

The 2011 French Open winner beat Belarusian Olga Govortsova 6-2, 7-5 to reach the third round for the second consecutive year, reports Xinhua.

Li started strongly and breezed through the first set in 32 minutes, dropping just two games and hitting a number of impressive forehand winners.

Govortsova showed some fight to break early in the second set and built a 4-2 lead.

The 30-year-old won five of the next six games to break Govortsova’s stubborn resistance and earn a place in the last 32.

Li faced two set points at 3-5 in the ninth game of the second set but came back to level at 5-5 before breaking Govortsova’s serve to clinch the match.

“Actually I think I did well in the first set.” said Li. “Maybe I became overconfident and gave the opponent too many chances. And I didn’t play as hard as in the first set.”

Li will face the winner of the match between Kristyna Pliskova of Czech Republic and 27th seed Sorana Cirstea of Romania Friday.

IANS 2013-01-16 12:54:02