Australian Samantha Stosur reached her first final since Roland Garros almost a year ago when the sixth seed defeated Li Na of China 7—6 (8—6), 6—0 at the Rome Masters on Saturday.
But the sixth—seeded winner did it tough in a combative opening set of the semi—final which took nearly an hour to complete and featured several late shifts of momentum.
But once Stosur had salted away the opener on a hot and sunny day at the Foro Italico, the wheels came off of Li’s effort as China’s number one failed to win another game in a 20—minute washout second set.
ADVERTISEMENT
Stosur will Sunday play the winner from top seed Caroline Wozniacki and two—time Rome finalist Maria Sharapova.
Despite her tennis education in Queensland, Stosur has become something of a clay specialist after reaching her fourth final on the European surface.
The 27—year—old last bid for a trophy in Paris as she lost the French Open final a year ago to Italy’s Francesca Schiavone, whom Stosur beat in the Rome semi—finals.
ADVERTISEMENT
The Aussie improved to 3—0 over Li and will be bidding for her third career title winning Osaka in 2009 and Charleston in 2010.
Stosur had a chance to close out the opening set early against fourth seed Li, but missed a pair of set points in the ninth game as her Chinese opponent held serve.
With Stosur then serving for the set at 5—4, things started to go wrong as the Aussie failed on her next two set point chances with backhand errors. Stosur then faced a break point, which she lot on a backhand error to hand it back over to Li, 5—5.
The set wound into a tiebreaker, with Li sprinting to 3—1 before Stosur reeled her in. The Australian saved a set point and finally closed out the opening encounter on her own fifth set point, a winning forehand volley approach.
Stosur sprinted to victory in the lightning—fast second set, ending with 17 winners and 17 unforced errors while breaking Li four times.