Li Na and Kvitova to Meet in Finals of Rogers Cup
Tenth-seeded Li Na of China advanced to the finals of the 2012 Rogers Cup in Montreal when she defeated 16th-seeded Lucie Safarova 3-6, 6-3, 7-5 on Sunday. Li will now face fifth-seeded Petra Kvitova Monday in the final. Kvitova defeated former world number one-ranked and seventh-seeded Caroline Wozniacki 3-6, 6-2, 6-3 to advance. The match was filled with errors, but Li rallied to come back when Safarova was leading 5-1 in the final set.
"In the beginning I was trying to shoot as hard as I could, and I was making a lot of mistakes – so I knew I had to start putting the ball back in the court more," Li explained after the match. "This is tennis. You have to put the ball over the net and back in the court. It looks easy, but sometimes it can be hard to do."
Li and Safarova has met six times since 2009, with Li victorious in all meetings.
"Closing a match out is always a little bit of a nervous moment," Safarova said. "Because she was doing quite a lot of mistakes in the games before, I didn’t put enough pressure, and she used that situation to turn it around. She started to play much better at that moment, and it just started slipping away."
During Kvitova’s rain-interrupted semifinal match, the Czech dominated the final two sets. The 22-year old has never won a WTA title in North America. She has won in Europe, Asia, and Australia. The Czech says her asthma might have been a factor of why she has never won in North America.
"We’ve played each other three times and I’m losing, so I have to win tomorrow to have revenge and make it 2-2. She’s playing great tennis here; I will try my best," said Kvitova of meeting Li in the finals.
