2013 Li Na tennis season

2013 Li Na tennis season
Singles
Season record	44–14 (75.86%)
Calendar titles	1
Current ranking	No. 3
Ranking change from previous year	4
Grand Slam & significant results
Australian Open	F
French Open	2R
Wimbledon	QF
US Open	SF
	Last updated on: 28 October 2013.

The 2013 Li Na tennis season officially began on 31 December with the start of the 2013 WTA Tour at the first edition of the 2013 Shenzhen Open.

Yearly summary

Early hard court season and Australian Open

Shenzhen Open

Li Na started her season strongly by participating the inaugural Shenzhen Open in her home country. Defeating Mandy Minella, Julia Cohen, Bojana Jovanovski and country woman Peng Shuai en route, Li advanced to her first final of the year against fifth seed Klára Zakopalová. After splitting the first two sets, the deciding set was a tight affair, but Li broke her opponent's last service game to win the match. It was Li's first title of the year and seventh overall.

Apia International

Li then competed in Sydney in preparation for the Australian Open. On her road to the semifinals, Li defeated rising star Christina McHale, qualifier Ayumi Morita and another American prodigy Madison Keys, amassing a perfect 8–0 this season. In the semifinal Li faced Agnieszka Radwańska and went on to lose in straight sets. Radwańska later won the title.

Australian Open

Entering the first Grand Slam of the year, Li defeated young players Sesil Karatantcheva, Olga Govortsova, Sorana Cîrstea and Julia Görges en route to set up a quarter final match between her tour rivalry and friend Agnieszka Radwańska. Li took full advantage of her well-rounded performance, ending the Pole's Australian run in straight sets. In the semifinals, world No. 2 Maria Sharapova won only 4 games in a lopsided victory for Li. This would be Li's third Major final in her career .

Li's opponent in the final was defending champion Victoria Azarenka. The pair entered the final with 1 Major victory each. Li won the first set but fell twice in the second set. She twisted her left ankle and also hit her head on the court. Li, though injured, continued the match and was defeated by Azarenka in three sets. Li received a huge applause from the audience while giving her speech in the ceremony later that night.

Because of her left ankle injury, Li withdrew from 2013 Qatar Total Open, 2013 Dubai Tennis Championships and 2013 BNP Paribas Open. She continued her season in 2013 Sony Open Tennis in March.

Sony Open Tennis

After not participating any tour events for 2 months, Li returned to the American hard court season in Miami. As the fifth seed of the event

Clay court season and French Open

Porsche Tennis Grand Prix

Mutua Madrid Open

Internazionali BNL d'Italia

French Open

Grass court season and Wimbledon

Aegon International

Wimbledon

US Open Series and US Open

Rogers Cup

In her first match since Wimbledon, she beat Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in two easy sets. In the third round Li faced Ana Ivanovic. The two traded sets but in the final set in went to a tiebreak, and Li earned a hard-fought victory. Li then defeated Dominika Cibulková and proceeded to the semifinal where she lost to Sorana Cîrstea in two sets.

Western & Southern Open

Li was the defending champion, and went on to make the semifinals. She lost to Serena Williams, 7–5 7–5, and double faulted to lose both sets.

US Open

Asian hard court season and Year-end Championships

China Open

WTA Championships

Li was drawn in the White group along with Victoria Azarenka, Sara Errani and Jelena Janković. She opened her campaign with a straight set win over Errani, improving to 6–0 in career head-to-head meetings against her. She was behind 3–1 in the second set before winning the next four games. She twice served for the match, wasting a match point at 5–3, and dropped serve on both occasions. Trailing 3–1 in the tiebreaker, Li won the next five points and converted her third match point when Errani dumped a forehand into the net. She emerged victorious against Janković in three topsy-turvy sets. In her final round robin match against Azarenka, she stormed out to a 4–2 lead before Azarenka suffered a lower back injury, allowing Li to win in two easy sets. She finished the match with an impressive +20 winner to error differential (28 to 8). The win meant she advanced to the semifinals for the first time with a 3–0 round robin record. She secured a career-high ranking of world No. 3 by besting Petra Kvitová in the semifinals, the highest ranking an Asian player, male or female, has ever achieved. In the final she made a strong start, blasting 10 winners en route to winning the first set against Serena Williams, but ran out of gas at 3–3 in the second set, losing nine games in a row to lose the championship.

All matches

Singles matches

Tournament	Match #	Round	Opponent	Rank	Result	Score
Shenzhen Open Shenzhen, China WTA International Hard, outdoor 31 December 2012 – 6 January 2013	1	1R	Mandy Minella	#77	Win	6–4, 6–0
	2	2R	Julia Cohen	#129	Win	6–3, 6–4
	3	QF	Bojana Jovanovski	#56	Win	6–3, 6–3
	4	SF	Peng Shuai	#40	Win	6–4, 6–0
	5	F	Klára Zakopalová	#28	Win	6–3, 1–6, 7–5
Apia International Sydney, Australia WTA Premier Hard, outdoor 7–13 January 2013	6	1R	Christina McHale	#36	Win	7–6^(7–2), 7–5
	7	2R	Ayumi Morita	#81	Win	6–1, 6–0
	8	QF	Madison Keys	#135	Win	4–6, 7–6^(7–2), 6–2
	9	SF	Agnieszka Radwańska	#4	Loss	4–6, 3–6
Australian Open Melbourne, Australia Grand Slam Hard, outdoor 14–27 January 2013	10	1R	Sesil Karatantcheva	#113	Win	6–1, 6–3
	11	2R	Olga Govortsova	#58	Win	6–2, 7–5
	12	3R	Sorana Cîrstea	#28	Win	6–4, 6–1
	13	4R	Julia Görges	#18	Win	7–6^(8–6), 6–1
	14	QF	Agnieszka Radwańska	#4	Win	7–5, 6–3
	15	SF	Maria Sharapova	#2	Win	6–2, 6–2
	16	F	Victoria Azarenka	#1	Loss	6–4, 4–6, 3–6
Qatar Total Open Doha, Qatar WTA Premier 5 Hard, outdoor 11–17 February 2013	Withdrew
Dubai Tennis Championships Dubai, United Arab Emirates WTA Premier Hard, outdoor 18–24 February 2013	Withdrew
BNP Paribas Open Indian Wells, United States WTA Premier Mandatory Hard, outdoor 4–17 March 2013	Withdrew
Sony Open Tennis Miami, United States WTA Premier Mandatory Hard, outdoor 18–31 March 2013	–	1R	Bye
	17	2R	Kiki Bertens	#42	Win	6–3, 6–1
	18	3R	Varvara Lepchenko	#29	Win	6–2, 6–4
	19	4R	Garbiñe Muguruza	#73	Win	7–6^(8–6), 6–2
	20	QF	Serena Williams	#1	Loss	3–6, 6–7^(5–7)
Porsche Tennis Grand Prix Stuttgart, Germany WTA Premier Clay, indoor 22–28 April 2013	–	1R	Bye
	21	2R	Mirjana Lučić-Baroni	#103	Win	6–1, 6–2
	22	QF	Petra Kvitová	#8	Win	6–3, 7–5
	23	SF	Bethanie Mattek-Sands	#104	Win	6–4, 6–3
	24	F	Maria Sharapova	#2	Loss	4–6, 3–6
Mutua Madrid Open Madrid, Spain WTA Premier Mandatory Clay, outdoor 6–12 May 2013	25	1R	Madison Keys	#62	Loss	3–6, 2–6
Internazionali BNL d'Italia Rome, Italy WTA Premier 5 Clay, outdoor 13–19 May 2013	–	1R	Bye
	26	2R	Zheng Jie	#50	Win	6–3, 6–1
	27	3R	Jelena Janković	#18	Loss	6–7^(2–7), 5–7
French Open Paris, France Grand Slam Clay, outdoor 26–9 June 2013	28	1R	Anabel Medina Garrigues	#68	Win	6–3, 6–4
	29	2R	Bethanie Mattek-Sands	#62	Loss	7–5, 3–6, 2–6
Aegon International Eastbourne, United Kingdom WTA Premier Grass, outdoor 17–22 June 2013	30	1R	Alizé Cornet	#30	Win	6–2, 6–4
	–	2R	Marion Bartoli	#15	Walkover	N/A
	31	QF	Elena Vesnina	#36	Loss	6–7^(4–7), 3–6
Wimbledon Championships London, United Kingdom Grand Slam Grass, outdoor 24 June – 7 July 2013	32	1R	Michaëlla Krajicek	#575	Win	6–1, 6–1
	33	2R	Simona Halep	#43	Win	6–2, 1–6, 6–0
	34	3R	Klára Zakopalová	#32	Win	4–6, 6–0, 8–6
	35	4R	Roberta Vinci	#11	Win	6–2, 6–0
	36	QF	Agnieszka Radwańska	#4	Loss	6–7^(5–7), 6–4, 2–6
Rogers Cup Toronto, Canada WTA Premier 5 Hard, outdoor 5–11 August 2013	–	1R	Bye
	37	2R	Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova	#31	Win	6–1, 6–4
	38	3R	Ana Ivanovic	#15	Win	3–6, 6–1, 7–6^(7–5)
	39	QF	Dominika Cibulková	#20	Win	7–6^(7–1), 6–2
	40	SF	Sorana Cîrstea	#27	Loss	1–6, 6–7^(5–7)
Western & Southern Open Cincinnati, United States WTA Premier 5 Hard, outdoor 12–19 August 2013	–	1R	Bye
	41	2R	Lauren Davis	#76	Win	4–6, 6–1, 6–1
	42	3R	Angelique Kerber	#8	Win	6–4, 6–4
	–	QF	Agnieszka Radwańska	#4	Walkover	N/A
	43	SF	Serena Williams	#1	Loss	5–7, 5–7
US Open New York City, United States Grand Slam Hard, outdoor 26 August – 9 September 2013	44	1R	Olga Govortsova	#88	Win	6–2, 6–2
	45	2R	Sofia Arvidsson	#100	Win	6–2, 6–2
	46	3R	Laura Robson	#32	Win	6–2, 7–5
	47	4R	Jelena Janković	#12	Win	6–3, 6–0
	48	QF	Ekaterina Makarova	#24	Win	6–4, 6–7^(5–7), 6–2
	49	SF	Serena Williams	#1	Loss	0–6, 3–6
China Open Beijing, China WTA Premier Mandatory Hard, outdoor 28 September – 6 October 2013	50	1R	Daniela Hantuchová	#31	Win	6–0, 6–4
	51	2R	Bojana Jovanovski	#39	Win	6–0, 6–1
	52	3R	Sabine Lisicki	#16	Win	7–5, 6–4
	53	QF	Petra Kvitová	#7	Loss	6–4, 2–6, 4–6
WTA Tour Championships Istanbul, Turkey WTA Tour Championships Hard, indoor 21–27 October 2013	54	RR	Sara Errani	#7	Win	6–3, 7–6^(7–5)
	55	RR	Jelena Janković	#8	Win	6–3, 2–6, 6–3
	56	RR	Victoria Azarenka	#2	Win	6–2, 6–1
	57	SF	Petra Kvitová	#6	Win	6–4, 6–2
	58	F	Serena Williams	#1	Loss	6–2, 3–6, 0–6

Tournament schedule

Singles schedule

Li Na's 2013 singles tournament schedule is as follows:

Date	Championship	Location	Category	Surface	Prev. result	Prev. points	New points	Outcome
30 December 2012– 6 January 2013	Shenzhen Open	Shenzhen (CHN)	WTA International	Hard	N/A	0	280	Winner defeated Klára Zakopalová, 6–3, 1–6, 7–5
7 January 2013– 13 January 2013	Apia International	Sydney (AUS)	WTA Premier	Hard	F	320	200	Semifinals lost to Agnieszka Radwańska, 3–6, 4–6
14 January 2013– 27 January 2013	Australian Open	Melbourne (AUS)	Grand Slam	Hard	4R	280	1400	Final lost to Victoria Azarenka, 6–4, 4–6, 3–6
11 February 2013– 17 February 2013	Qatar Total Open	Doha (QAT)	WTA Premier 5	Hard	DNP	0	0	Withdrew due to a left ankle injury
18 February 2013– 23 February 2013	Dubai Tennis Championships	Dubai (UAE)	WTA Premier	Hard	DNP	0	0	Withdrew due to a left ankle injury
4 March 2013– 17 March 2013	BNP Paribas Open	Indian Wells (USA)	WTA Premier Mandatory	Hard	QF	250	0	Withdrew due to a left ankle injury
18 March 2013– 31 March 2013	Sony Ericsson Open	Miami (USA)	WTA Premier Mandatory	Hard	QF	250	250	Quarterfinals lost to Serena Williams, 3–6, 6–7^(5–7)
22 April 2013– 28 April 2013	Porsche Tennis Grand Prix	Stuttgart (GER)	WTA Premier	Clay (i)	QF	120	320	Final lost to Maria Sharapova, 4–6, 3–6
6 May 2013– 12 May 2013	Mutua Madrid Open	Madrid (ESP)	WTA Premier Mandatory	Clay	QF	250	5	First round lost to Madison Keys, 2–6, 3–6
13 May 2013– 19 May 2013	Internazionali BNL d'Italia	Rome (ITA)	WTA Premier 5	Clay	F	620	125	Third round lost to Jelena Janković, 6–7^(2–7), 5–7
26 May 2013– 9 June 2013	French Open	Paris (FRA)	Grand Slam	Clay	4R	280	100	Second round lost to Bethanie Mattek-Sands, 7–5, 3–6, 2–6
17 June 2013– 22 June 2013	Aegon International	Eastbourne (GBR)	WTA Premier	Grass	DNP	0	120	Quarterfinals lost to Elena Vesnina, 6–7^(4–7), 3–6
23 June 2013– 7 July 2013	Wimbledon	London (GBR)	Grand Slam	Grass	2R	100	500	Quarterfinals lost to Agnieszka Radwańska, 6–7^(5–7), 6–4, 2–6
5 August 2013– 11 August 2013	Rogers Cup	Toronto (CAN)	WTA Premier 5	Hard	F	620	395	Semifinals lost to Sorana Cîrstea, 1–6, 6–7^(5–7)
12 August 2013– 18 August 2013	Western & Southern Open	Cincinnati (USA)	WTA Premier 5	Hard	W	900	395	Semifinals lost to Serena Williams, 5–7, 5–7
26 August 2013– 9 September 2013	US Open	New York City (USA)	Grand Slam	Hard	3R	160	900	Semifinals lost to Serena Williams, 0–6, 3–6
28 September 2013– 6 October 2013	China Open	Beijing (CHN)	WTA Premier Mandatory	Hard	SF	450	250	Quarterfinals lost to Petra Kvitová, 6–4, 2–6, 4–6
21 October 2013– 27 October 2013	WTA Tour Championships	Istanbul (TUR)	WTA Tour Championships	Hard (i)	RR	370	1050	Final lost to Serena Williams, 6–2, 3–6, 0–6
Total year-end points							6045

Yearly records

Head-to-head matchups

Bold indicates that the player was in the Top 10, italics denotes that the player was in the Top 20 (at the time of the match being played). This list is ordered by number of wins to number of losses in chronological order played.

Finals

Singles: 4 (1–3)

Legend
WTA Grand Slams (0–1)
WTA Tour Championships (0–1)
WTA Premier Mandatory (0–0)
WTA Premier 5 (0–0)
WTA Premier (0–1)
International (1–0)

Finals by surface
Hard (1–2)
Clay (0–1)

Finals by venue
Outdoors (1–1)
Indoors (0–2)

Outcome	No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent	Score
Winner	7.	6 January 2013	Shenzhen, China	Hard	Klára Zakopalová	6–3, 1–6, 7–5
Runner-up	9.	26 January 2013	Melbourne, Australia	Hard	Victoria Azarenka	6–4, 4–6, 4–6
Runner-up	10.	28 April 2013	Stuttgart, Germany	Clay (i)	Maria Sharapova	4–6, 3–6
Runner-up	11.	27 October 2013	Istanbul, Turkey	Hard (i)	Serena Williams	6–2, 3–6, 0–6

Earnings

#	Event	Prize money	Year-to-date
1	Shenzhen Open	$112,080	$112,080
2	Apia International	$32,830	$144,910
3	Australian Open	$1,220,969	$1,365,879
4	Sony Open Tennis	$90,250	$1,456,129
5	Porsche Tennis Grand Prix	$68,200	$1,524,329
6	Mutua Madrid Open	$12,268	$1,536,597
7	Internazionali BNL d'Italia	$24,300	$1,560,897
8	French Open	$43,640	$1,604,537
9	Aegon International	$17,850	$1,622,387
10	Wimbledon	$320,869	$1,943,256
11	Rogers Cup	$104,700	$2,047,956
12	Western & Southern Open	$104,700	$2,152,656
13	US Open	$638,929	$2,791,585
14	China Open	$100,900	$2,892,485
15	WTA Tour Championships	$1,090,000	$3,982,485
			$3,982,485

Figures in United States dollars (USD) unless noted.

References