Maur
icio P
aiz
By the fourth round of the2011 Australian Open,China’s Li Na was confidentwith her game and herchances against the tour’stop players. When askedwhy she beat VictoriaAzarenka so decisively, 6-3,6-3, Na replied, “Because I’mbetter, so I won the match.”The statement was one ofmany one-liners that bol-stered her popularity. Liwould, however, fall painful-ly short in her first GrandSlam final to a resourcefulKim Clijsters.
Li entered the secondSlam of the year, RolandGarros, with great focus.She would advance to thefinals where she faced thefeisty Francesca Schiavoneof Italy. When the petiteSchiavone hit an errantbackhand on match point,Li slid to the clay.Approximately 116 millionChinese watched the monu-mental victory on television,as Li became the firstChinese player to win aGrand Slam. Her rise to star-dom was immediate.
“If don’t do well inWimbledon,” Li said with alaugh, “maybe people willforget me already.”
2011
year in reviewyear inreview
yearinreviewyearinreview
GREA
TEST FEATS
NovakDjokovic’s43-MATCH WINNING STREAK
li NaCHINA'S FIRST GRANDSLAM WINNER
Little did we know thatNovak Djokovic’s third consecutive loss to RogerFederer last Novemberwould be Djokovic’s lasttaste of defeat for a longtime.
A very long time. Djokovic rallied in
December 2010 to lift Serbiato an emotional Davis Cuptitle. The soul-quenching vic-tory was his first step in along journey towards plac-ing him at the top of ten-nis’s pecking order.
All told, Djokovic’s streaklasted 43 matches, stretched
across six months, traversedfour continents, wore downtwo living legends (he was acombined 7-0 vs. Nadal andFederer) and brought theimagination of sports fansworldwide to a boil.
It was improbable, capti-vating, mind-boggling andbeautiful. With each passingtitle (there were seven), thebuzz brewed and the admi-ration grew. He was 13-0 vs.top 10 players and lost only10 sets during the streak.
In all his gluten-freeglory, Djokovic took tennisto a new level – where it
remains. With a beefed-upserve, electric returns and anew penchant for deliveringin the clutch, Djokovic single handedly put thekibosh to the Federer-Nadal duopoly that hadruled tennis since 2004.
The streak ended at thehands of Federer in theRoland Garros semifinals,but the numbers hadalready spoken: Federer’swin was a huge accom-plishment, but Djokovic’s43-match winning streakwas the boldest statementof 2011.
