Li upset at Malaysian Open, top seed Dementieva through
China’s Li Na, who has risen to No.10 in the rankings after reaching the Australian Open semifinals, lost 6-1 5-7 6-2 to Germany’s Tatjana Malek in the first round of the inaugural Malaysian Open.
Chinese first ever Top-10 women’s tennis player and second seed in Kuala Lumpur, converted all three of her break points, but lost her own serve three times and world No.81 Malek thus scored her first Top 10 win. Li’s compatriot Zheng Jie, seed No.3, advanced to the second round by beating qualifier Elena Bovina 6-4 6-3.
Top-seeded Elena Dementieva progressed to the second round. The Russian defeated Ekaterina Bychkova 6-2 6-1, in a less straightforward match than the score suggests. Interestingly, Dementieva’s next opponent will be young Serbian star Bojana Jovanovski, who you remember was jury member here on Women’s Tennis Blog when we held the contest to award one of our readers with the racquet signed by Justine Henin. Good luck, Bojana! (photo: chascow)
I hope Li doesn't go the way of Pennetta who hit the top ten and then fairly quickly lost it. Li made a big deal about wanting to be number 1 now but she needs to put up better results. Hopefully she will remain healthy to attain her goal. I follow many players though and they often conflict.
I know Li Na talked about being no.1 and that was
her goal, but I really don't see her cracking the
top 7 or 6 at the most, unless she makes 2 more
grandslam semifinal appearances or a final for
that matter, then yes she will keep moving up
and win a few titles this year or the next, but
she has semifinal points in miami to defend so
I don't know…
Health is the first thing that has to be there for Li.
Health and staying possitive is what Li needs to achieve her goals.