Clijsters made to battle by Li
Kim Clijsters was made to battle for every one of her 87 minutes on Centre Court today disposing of emerging Chinese star Na Li and booking her place in the Wimbledon last four.
The second seed had to save a second set point and often had to settle for second best in some searing baseline rallies before holding her nerve to triumph 6-4 7-5.
But for an errant forehand, the little-known Li would surely have taken the match into a deciding set and on this evidence the future threat from the east is likely to grow.
The 23-year-old Clijsters knew all about the threat from her opponent who had seen off French Open finalist Svetlana Kuznetsova and top teen Nicole Vaidisova to reach the last eight.
She took the initiative by breaking Li in the first game of the match but once she had settled on her Centre Court debut, the underdog hit back and levelled matters with a break in the fourth game.
But Li’s delightful mixture of searing ground-strokes and drop volleys was hampered by those poor forehands which would eventually account for most of 33 unforced errors.
Li was broken straight back but kept on track with an audacious lob winner in the seventh game which earned the applause of both the crowd and Clijsters herself.
But Clijsters, in her first Wimbledon quarter-final for three years, was far from intimidated by the clear Chinese threat and served out comfortably to take the first set.
Clijsters consolidated her advantage by breaking Li in the opening game of the second set and after serving out to love in the following game it appeared she had almost done enough to progress.
But despite her continuing forehand blunders, Li hit back, taking advantage of a series of uncharacteristic errors by opponent to convert her fourth break-back point to level the set at 2-2.
The Belgian’s errors continued and when contrasted with the clearly growing confidence of her opponent, it allowed Li to step in and take control of the set.
Another Clijsters double-fault gave Li the break point chance she converted to take her fourth consecutive game and a 4-2 lead, before serving out to move within one game of levelling the set score.
But having battled back from 0-30 to snap her opponent’s winning streak, Clijsters pressured the Chinese player’s serve and after saving a set point with a big return, broke back to stay in the set at 4-5.
Clijsters brought the set back level courtesy of two more forehand errors from a plainly tightening Li, who was then all too predictably broken again to leave the Belgian serving for the match.
With Li battling to the end, Clijsters had to save two break points and squandered two match points before a long backhand by the Chinese player finally secured her a tight victory.
