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53 maltatoday, SUNDAY, 26 JANUARY 2014 TENNIS Li Na beats Cibulkova to capture first Australian Open title LI, the beaten finalist in 2011 and 2013 in Melbourne, edged a nervous first set on a tie-break but was imperious in the second as she eased to a 7-6 (7/3) 6-0 win. The victory gave the Chinese player her second grand slam title to add to the French Open crown she won in 2011. Li, who had to save a match point in her third-round clash with Lucie Safarova, was presented with the Daphne Akhurst Memorial Cup by Chris Evert. She said: "Last two times was very close. I'm so happy I won the title here and I cannot wait to come back." The 31-year-old is well known for her sense of a humour and in a terrific on-court speech she also thanked her agent Max Eisenbud for "making me rich" and told husband Jiang Shan he was lucky to have found her. Cibulkova struggled to hold back tears as she said: "This is the most fantastic two weeks of my life. This means a lot for our country and I'm happy I can be the one here representing Slovakia." Li is hugely popular here and there was no doubt who the crowd were rooting for when the two players walked out onto Rod Laver Arena. Cibulkova had only previously made one grand slam semi-final, while she had lost all four of her previous four matches against Li. The 24-year-old betrayed some understandable nerves with two double faults in the opening game to have her serve broken. The power of Li was really troubling Cibulkova, who at 5ft 3in was looking to become the joint shortest winner of a grand slam title in the Open era. She dug in to save more break points and get on the board in the third game, and Li's struggles on serve eventually cost her as Cibulkova levelled at 3-3. Li's first-serve percentage was only 13 and successive double faults gave the Slovakian the break back. Li was the clear favourite in a grand slam final for the first time, having lost here to Kim Clijsters and Victoria Azarenka in 2011 and 2013, respectively. More than 115 million people in China watched her beat Francesca Schiavone in the French Open final in 2011, and the expectation was that she would add a second slam title here. When Li got into a rally, her groundstrokes clearly had more weight, especially her backhand down the line, which is one of the best shots in the women's game. Her forehand was letting her down, but she cut down on the errors in the 11th game and got her reward with a second break. But the 31-year-old could not serve it out, missing a backhand on China's Li Na wins the Australian Open title set point, and into a tie-break they went. This time Li took her opportunity, opening up a 5-1 lead and eventually clinching it when Cibulkova netted a backhand. The crumb of comfort for Cibulkova, the first player to represent Slovakia in a grand slam singles final, was that Li had also won the first set in her previous two Melbourne finals and gone on to lose them both. The Chinese player appeared determined not to suffer the same fate, though, and raced out to a 3-0 lead in the second set. Most importantly, Li was staying on her feet. In last year's final, the 31year-old fell over twice, twisting her ankle and then banging her head. Li had cut her errors right down and Cibulkova simply could find no way to combat the extra power of the fourth seed. She was now fighting just to try to avoid a love set, but a backhand long gave Li two match points at 5-0. One went begging but on the second Cibulkova sent a forehand long and Li raised her arms in triumph. Kubot and Lindstedt Italian duo staged a stunning fightback to win doubles title triumph Kubot and Lindstedt celebrate their Australian Open win LUKASZ Kubot and Robert Lindstedt won their maiden Grand Slam title thanks to a straightsets victory over Eric Butorac and Raven Klaasen in Saturday's Australian Open final. It was also the duo's first appearance at a major together and before the event began they had never even won a match as a team at tournament level. Following a dream run to the final, Kubot and Lindstedt were able to dominate throughout and faced only one break point during the match that lasted just 65 minutes. Butorac and Klaasen, who up- set world number one pair Bob and Mike Bryan in the third round, tried to up the tempo in the second set and even though their general play improved, they could get back into the match and eventually lost 6-3 6-3. The victory meant that Kubot became the first Polish man to win a Grand Slam men's doubles title since Wojtek Fibak won with Kim Warwick at the 1978 Australian Open while Lindstedt is Sweden's first male doubles champion at Grand Slam level since Simon Aspelin won the 2007 US Open with Julian Knowle. YOUR FIRST CLICK OF THE DAY www.maltatoday.com.mt Vinci (l) and Errani won the last five games for a dramatic victory SARA Errani and Roberta Vinci staged a dramatic comeback to retain their Australian Open women's doubles title. The top-seeded Italian duo found themselves in a deep hole when a double-break of serve down in the final set of their clash with Russians Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina at 5-2. However, from that position they dug themselves out of the hole spectacularly with a run of five straight games as first Makarova and then Vesnina failed to serve out for the title. Their 6-4 3-6 7-5 victory over the third seeds brought the pair their fourth Grand Slam doubles title and their second in Melbourne. The only Slam they have not won at is Wimbledon. It also ensured they remain as joint world number ones in the WTA rankings. Asked for they had managed to turn the match around, Errani admitted she had no idea. "I don't know," she said. "It was very strange, very difficult. We went from 2-0 up in the third (to) 5-2, playing not very good. "From there we just kept it going."