China’s Li Na produced a sensational comeback to beat Kim Clijsters and win the Sydney International title.
Eighth seed Li was 0-5 down after only 18 minutes, but fought back to win in straight sets 7-6 (7-3) 6-3.
“I didn’t believe I could get back from there but it all just changed in one or two points,” said Li.
The win is a fourth career title for world number 11 Li and a boost ahead of next week’s Australian Open, where she reached the semi-final last year.
It was a spectacularly see-saw opening set. The 27-year-old Belgian broke her opponent’s serve three times, before suffering a remarkable collapse.
Seven double faults and 27 unforced errors from Clijsters allowed Li, 28, to recover and then overhaul her opponent, to claim the opening set after a tie-break.
An increasingly frustrated Clijsters then lost her serve twice early in the second set.
606: DEBATE
Bizarre match. You could definitely say though that the assist on the comeback came from Kim Clijsters
FedFanKim
Li held her own serve under pressure in the second to record her first tournament victory since Birmingham in 2010.
“I think I just softened the quality of my strokes,” said third-seeded Clijsters. “I wasn’t hitting quite as deep as before and not as aggressively, and she definitely took over very quickly.
“I didn’t played my best tonight. But she did and she deserved to win.”
It was Li’s first win over the two-time champion in three meetings at the Sydney tournament. Until this defeat, Clijsters had a perfect record in semi-finals and finals since coming out of retirement in 2009.
Despite Li’s win, she will remain at number 11 in the world rankings. Clijsters misses out on the chance to move from third to second, above Vera Zvonoreva.
Gilles Simon of France beat third-seeded Ernests Gulbis of Latvia 7-6 (7-1) 6-0 to reach the final of the Sydney International.
Simon won all but three points of the second set.
The Frenchman will face where Viktor Troicki of Serbia who defeated Germany’s Florian Mayer 6-4 7-6 (7-4).
Meanwhile, former world number one Lleyton Hewitt will meet Frenchman Gael Monfils in the invitational Kooyong Classic in Melbourne after he beat Russia’s Nikolay Davydenko 6-3 7-6 on Friday.
Hewitt faces David Nalbandian in the first round of the Australian Open which begins next week. He beat the Argentine in the 2002 Wimbledon final.
“At Wimbledon I handled the pressure and expectation extremely well that day and played a near flawless match,” said 29-year-old Hewitt.
“But a lot’s happened since then and I’ve still got to go out there and play my game. It should be a good match.”
