Australian Open Women’s Champion Li Na
The Australian Open has come and gone for another year, and once again it did not disappoint. This year’s tournament saw first-time winners in both the Men’s and Women’s Singles with Switzerland’s Stanislas Wawrinka and China’s Li Na taking out the honours.
The men’s draw saw a potential all-Swiss final between Roger Federer and Stanislas Wawrinka. After a highly entertaining loss in the semi finals to world number one Rafael Nadal, the grand maestro said he was bitterly disappointed at missing out on an historic occasion, and that it will rank as one of the biggest disappointments in his career.
Wawrinka earned himself a spot in the final after defeating world number 2 Novak Djokovic in a five set quarter final thriller. From there on the 8th seeded Wawrinka ended the run of 7th seeded Czech, Tomas Berdych, to set up a final against Rafael Nadal. It wasn’t to be two in a row against Swiss opposition for Nadal who lost in a final that will be remembered for his time sapping injury breaks that frustrated both Wawrinka and the fans. The eventual score was 6-3, 6-2, 3-6, 6-2, much to the delight of many spectators, some of them booing Nadal.
It was Wawrinka’s maiden Grand Slam title and given the way he performed to earn it, it’s highly possible that the ATP’s top 10 now has one more major draw card.
In the women’s singles Slovakia’s Dominika Cibulkova, seeded at 20, was amongst those who caused an upset. Cibulkova advanced all the way to the final via a 4th round win against 3rd seed Maria Sharapova. Canada’s Eugenie Bouchard, ranked 30th, made it to the semi-finals by defeating an in-form Ana Ivanovic in the quarter finals following Ivanovic’s defeat of top seed Serena Williams in the previous round.
The 7th seed Li Na went on to defeat Dominika Cibulkova (7-6, 6-0) in the final to earn a second Grand Slam career win following her 2011 French Open win.
