Women's Final

 
Coming into the tournament I had picked Kim Clijsters to win because she is the most complete player out there in the field and most importantly she was healthy. At full health only Justine or Venus could have really pushed her. In the final she came up against Li Na, who was vying to become to first asian player to win a grand slam singles title. It was an interesting match-up because just 2 weeks prior, Li had beaten Clijsters in a warm-up event in Sydney. They both have very similar styles of play. They have two of the best two-handers in the game and they love to take it down the line. Their forehands are bigger but will give you more errors. Their serves are serviceable but not great. However, Clijsters has all the experience being a 3-time slam champion and having played her first grand slam final in 2002. She is also the better defender. None of this mattered in the first set. Clijsters came out on fire winning the first 8 points and I thought she might run through Li Na as she has done to her other grand slam victory opponents, but after Li got settled she was the one dictating play. Clijsters' game plan was to fight power with power and Li was feeding off of her pace and taking it to her. So in a surprise, Li took the first 6-3. It was more of the same at the start of the second set and at 3-2, 30-all on the Cljisters serve, it seemed that Li could actually win this thing. At critical moments such as that one, champions tighten the screws but inexplicably Li started leaking errors and then was getting increasingly frustrated by crowd noise, photographers, and her own poor play. To be fair, Clijsters was causing some of these errors by changing the pace of the rallies. She started using her variety instead of going toe to toe with Li in the power department. She successfully used a combination of slices and looping top spin shots to get some more air under the ball and force Li to generate her own power and Li missed, again and again. Li's biggest detriment is her lack of gameplan options and her propensity to run hot and cold; all of which were on display in the final. At the end of the day it is Clijsters who now has won 3 of the past 5 majors after coming back from retirement. I see her as a big favorite at the French and US Open. Who would have thought that Kim might be the more successful of the "Belgian Sisters"?