China’s Li Na reached the Ladies Australian Open final for the third time in four years with a 6-2, 6-4 win over young Canadian revelation Eugenie Bouchard.
Li dominated the opening stanza, rushing out to a 5-0 lead in only 16 minutes before Bouchard finally registered a game on the scoreboard. She added another before Li closed out the set behind penetrating groundstrokes and strong serving.
The Canadian steadied her nerves in the second set and made a match of it before her experienced opponent broke and closed out the set with a crosscourt backhand.
Li Na will meet the winner of Slovakia’s Dominika Cibulkova and Poland’s Agnieszka Radwanska who face off in the other semifinal.
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Cover Photo (Creative Commons License): globalite