Maria Sharapova survived a hostile crowd and a marathon first set to reach her eighth final of 2012, defeating Li Na 6-4, 6-0 Saturday in Beijing.
When two baseliners possessed of such relentless power face off, the result is generally a war of attrition, and today was no exception. Sharapova set the tone when, put in to serve first by Li, she opened the match with an eight-minute service hold in which she fought off three break points. Having kept her double-fault numbers low all week, Sharapova served three in a single game at 1-1 to be broken to 15, and it looked for a moment like Li – whose returning is not strong – would have to do very little to build up a sustained advantage. This impression was intensified as Li served to consolidate, a game in which Sharapova mistook a shout from the crowd for an ‘out’ call and let the ball go.
It would have been easy to be rattled under such conditions, but Li – who should have been on an emotional high in front of her home crowd – never managed to keep the requisite low level of errors to truly pressure Sharapova. Unable to consolidate her breaks, Li faded towards the end of the first set. After Sharapova saved a break point with a strong serve and an ace to hold for 4-5, an errant forehand and an equally errant backhand saw Li give up the first set. If she had been fading before, she disappeared virtually before our eyes in the second, plummeting to being a double-break down, as she simply couldn’t keep the ball in the court for long enough to challenge Sharapova.
The last time these two played, in Rome this year, Sharapova came back from a 4-6, 0-4 deficit to win. Now, that was the task facing Li, and for a moment it looked as if she might at least prolong the match, reaching 0-30 on Sharapova’s serve at 4-0. The Russian battled back to 30-30, but Li was well on top of the point with Sharapova scrambling for balance behind the baseline, only to take a defensive lob out of the air with a forehand drive volley and put it wildly long. It was the last flicker of defiance as Sharapova held, and although Li, her back firmly against the wall at 0-5, hit two clean backhand winners, an unforced error gave up match point, and she put one final forehand in the net. Sharapova will face Victoria Azarenka in the final.