The 2014 Australian Open women’s final will be contested by an old hand in Li Na and a debutante in Dominika Cibulkova. The tennis review looks ahead and takes a guess at who will be the likely winner.
History: Li Na is in her third Australian Open final in ten attempts. She was a set up in both her final appearance but her relentless ball-striking was undone by her most consistent opponents. Cibulkova, in contrast, has made it past the third round in Melbourne twice in seven tries. And this will be her first ever Major final.
Advantage: Li Na by a long way. She goes into the final believing after all her hard work in Melbourne over the years she deserves the title.
Form: Li Na has faced the more in form opponents this Open. Safarova had match points against her but Li Na fought back to win the kind of match she is prone to losing in Slams. The Chinese used her narrow escape as a spring board to thrash Makarova, a two time quarter-finalist, and then Pennetta, a big match player if ever there was one. Her semi-final opponent Bouchard was in the form of her young career and pushed her all the way in the second set with the kind of attacking tennis that can do serious damage on this surface. Li held firm though, showing off her consistency as well as her punishing backcourt game.
Cibulkova’s form has been excellent. She took care of her first three opponents to the loss of just 9 games with her out and out aggression. Then she beat Sharapova who though rusty and tired from her epic victory over Knapp is still quite the scalp. Next up was a nervous Halep and then a dead on her feet Radwanska. But whether her opponent is rusty, nervous or tired, it makes no difference to Cibulkova who just gets on with her own game irrespective of what is going on across the net.
Advantage: Li Na just edges it.
Match up: The two both have formidable ground strokes and will both look to be aggressive and end points inside the baseline. If both women have a high first serve percentage and can control the point from the first ball, expect sets to be close. The two also have big return games and if a chance comes their way both will go for it. Both risk takers and both confidence players, this will come down to whoever can execute best on the day.
Advantage: The 4-0 head to head says Li Na has the edge, but only just.
Mentality: Li has won a slam, which is as mentally demanding as it gets in tennis. She has also been runner up twice, having been a set up each time, so she does blow big leads in matches. And she has a tendency to implode if she starts to miss her shots. Still, she has proven herself to be mentally tougher than Cibulkova, coming though more big matches in her career, but Dominika is probably at her toughest right now and will be no pushover in her first final
Advantage: Li Na. She has proven she can cross the finishing line while Cibulkova is still an unknown quantity in big-time Championship matches.
Prediction: Li Na will take the first set as the occasion gets to her first time Major finalist opponent. Then as it dawns on Li Na that her second Major is a set away, expect some kind of implosion and for Cibulkova to take the set. In the third, Li Na will just edge Cibulkova as her experience proves to be decisive.
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