Prinorkova

Fresh from the clay courts of Paris she was unbeatable on the grass in Birmingham, and her 7-5, 6-1 win over Maria Sharapova in the final was particularly impressive.

“I think my game can be effective on a grass court because I play aggressively from the baseline,” explained Li. “After I won Birmingham I started to feel more confident, thinking more positively about playing on grass.”

And given how closely Sharapova pushed Serena Williams in their fourth round encounter Li will surely feel she has every chance of making it through to the semi-finals at Wimbledon for the very first time in her career.

Of course she’s been this far in a Grand Slam before; losing to Serena in the last four of the Australian Open earlier this season.

On that occasion two tie-breaks were all that separated the pair, but perhaps the match wouldn’t have been quite so close had Serena converted more than one of her nine break points.

Here at Wimbledon it’s imperative to serve well to stand the best possible chance of winning and Williams was outstanding in that regard against Sharapova; her fastest serve was hit at a phenomenal 125mph, she got 68% of her first serves in and won 84% of those points.

As far as the tournament’s concerned she leads the event in total aces with a whopping 62 (leaving her sister Venus trailing in her wake in second place with a relatively miserly 27) and also leads the event in terms of first serve points won at 90%, which is outstanding.

So if she can continue to dominate when stepping up to the line this will allow her to attempt to dominate when returning.

She cuts a truly imposing figure when standing well up the court in order to try and break, and Li will need to minimise the opportunities Serena gets to go after her second serve on the really important points.

The big bonus as far as Li is concerned is that she has nothing to lose and as a result can swing freely from the hip.

She’s got really strong legs and moves well around the baseline, and when she can get set up she has the necessary firepower to embarrass Williams – whether she can do it for long enough over the course of the match remains to be seen.

Their semi-final encounter in Melbourne was their only previous meeting this year and it was a tight affair; I expect more of the same this time around but can’t see Li having enough game to spring a major upset.

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