No. 5 seed, Kim Clijsters of Belgium survived a 3-set thriller against No. 5 seed, Na Li of China 4-6, 7-6(8-6), 6-4, in a repeat of last year’s Australian Open Final.
Clijsters twisted an ankle badly in the seventh game. After taking an injury time out to have it taped, she lost the first set 6-4. Na Li served for the second set at 5-4, but Clijsters broke serve, and the 2nd set ended up going into a tie-break. Li was then up 6-2 in the tie-break, with four match points. With Li suffering from close-out-the-match jitters, Clijsters saved those four match points, winning six points in a row to take the tie-break at 8-6.
In the final set, Clijsters came out strong while Li seemed to fall apart mentally. Clijsters broke twice to go up 4-0. Li then broke twice to get to 5-4. Clijsters then overcame a the close-out-the-match jitters of her own, to close out the fourth-round match on her second match point.
Clijsters won the 2011 Australian Open final against Na Li in three sets, 3-6, 6-3, 6-3.
