Not many people would give the odds to any player trailing 1-6, 1-3 in a match to emerge victorious later on. But Na Li proved everyone wrong after she came back from the ashes to beat Angelique Kerber of Germany 1-6, 6-3, 6-1 in 1 hour 40 minutes in what turned to be a very see-saw battle, with momentum swaying from one player to the other.

Kerber demolished Li in the opening set as her power strokes packed with Li’s errors help the German wrap the first in 30 minutes. It was a great start to the set and the match by the German as she broke the Chinese’ serve twice to have complete control of the set. Li was very shaky from the start and missed some bread and butter shots to give away the first set to Kerber.  Kerber was not made to do any work as Li’s 17 unforced errors did the trick.

In a dramatic turn of events, Li fought back from nowhere to take the second set and level things up in the match. Li came back from 1-3 down in the second set to shock the German, who was not sure what was happening to her. Li’s strokes that disappointed her in the first set all started going and that too with force. The set lasted for 47 minutes and Li smacked 15 winners along with 3 breaks of serves. It was the marathon eighth game that proved to be the match decider as it helped Li lead 5-3 after breaking the Kerber serve and also the match.

If 5 games back-to-back wasn’t enough, let’s make it 9! Li reeled off 4 straight games in the final set too to shatter all hopes the German had of picking up the third title of her career. A rather emotional side came out the moment Li lead 3-0, up with a double break as Kerber the damage has been done and is far beyond repair.

With an amazing 33 winners to her credit along with 6 breaks of serve, Li would go into the US Open with tons of confidence and also as a heavy favorite!