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Li Departs
Date: 5 January 2010
Chinese ace Li Na became the first major casualty of this year's ASB Classic, pounded into submission 6-1 6-3 by Estonian Kaia Kanepi in the opening round of singles on Tuesday afternoon.
Few could have seen it coming, least of all Li (27), who literally did not.
"On her serve, I could do nothing," admitted the shell-shocked world No 15. "She was hitting the ball so hard, I couldn''''t see it.
"She controlled every point. The match just came to her side and I could do nothing ... I would like to say today is not my day."
The pair had meet previously at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, where hometown support carried Li to a comeback victory in the round of 16.
On this occasion, Kanepi (24), dished up three aces and achieved 66% accuracy with her first serves, winning 70% of those first-chance points. She was obviously pleased with her performance and equally delighted with her rival''''s assessment of it.
"If she said that ... I thought I hit normally, but my game is quite powerful.
"I feel very satisfied," said Kanepi. "I had only a few games that I didn''''t do good, but I thought I was mentally stronger today.
"I didn''''t give up if I was down ... I just kept playing."
Kanepi, ranked No 61 in the world, awaits the winner between German Tatjana Malek and Russian Maria Kirilenko on Tuesday night.
Only one other seed failed to make it past the first hurdle of KIA Motors Singles play. On Monday night, Spaniard Anabel Medina Garigues seemed as bemused as Li when she was outclassed 6-2 6-3 by Slovak Magdalena Rybarikova.
But the KIA Motors Doubles draw also lost its second seeds when Dominika Cibulkova (Slovakia) and Belgian Yanina Wickmayer converted their singles form into a 6-1 7-6(6) victory over Indian Sania Mirza and Spaniard Virginia Ruano Pascual.
