French Open 2011 Women’s Final: Li Na Defeats Francesca Schiavone In Straight Sets

For such a wide-open women’s draw at the French Open 2011, you’d think NBC would have found room to shoehorn Li Na, a defending Slam finalist, into the graphics, but no: Clijsters, Wozniacki, Sharapova, and Schiavone flashed past in the broadcast intro without a hint of her presence. Li has now defeated two of those players in straight sets this fortnight. Like Roger Federer, Li was a media afterthought in Paris this season, if not quite as ridiculous an oversight.

Apart from everything else there is to love about Li’s story -- her record-setting run to two straight Grand Slam finals, one victorious; her comeback after leaving the sport to attend college; her eschewing of the Chinese Tennis Federation to train and compete as an independent athlete (a move that, by the way, deprives her government of any of her prize earnings) -- perhaps the most endearing is that she notched her first Slam victory on clay, her weakest surface. (Quoth Li afterwards to Mary Carillo: “[Schiavone’s] a little older than me, so I wanted to keep her running.”)

No. 6 Li Na def. Francesca Schiavone, 6-4 7-6(0). The French Open 2011 hosted a historic women’s final at Roland Garros Saturday, with defending first-time champ Schiavone facing the first Chinese player to ever reach the finals in Paris. Li also holds the distinction of being the first player from her homeland to play in any Grand Slam final, having fallen to Kim Clijsters this past January in Melbourne, but a newer, loftier record is hers today.

After a close but decisive win in the first set, the second may as well have been decided by one shot: Schiavone, down a set, had her first chance to break serve, and Li whipped a 100 mph ace past her. From there, the psychic momentum belonged to the whirling dervish in the jaunty visor, though the score didn’t always reflect it. Schiavone battled Li to a tiebreaker, the two trading service games throughout the second. The defending champ visibly picked up speed at 5-all, amid audible chants for Li and announcers calling the match a “dogfight.”

Li Na leads Francesca Schiavone, 6-4. If the women’s final of the French Open 2011 were a football game, it would be one of those situations where the field is soaked in a monsoon, nobody can stop anybody from scoring, and the last team to hold the ball wins. On a blustery, dry day in Stade Roland Garros, on a very dry court that’s making footing treacherous, in a match devoid of the top four seeds in the women’s field, the No. 6 seed is taking it to the No. 5, who also happens to be the defending French Open champion.

Had Li not taken the first set, there might have been trouble for the management. In the seventh game of the first set, a point clearly on the line was called out by a match official who used the wrong mark to measure where the ball had landed. All credit to Schiavone, who was down 2-4 at the time and said herself the point was good.

The women’s final of the French Open 2011 begins play Saturday morning at Roland Garros, with World No. 5 Francesca Schiavone of Italy and China’s Li Na (No. 6) facing off for the Coupe Suzanne Lenglen, bring to a close a sporadic and wildly unpredictable women’s draw.

With the top four seeds eliminated embarrassingly early on in Paris, a relatively easy way has been made for Li to become the first Chinese player to reach the finals at Roland Garros. It’s her second such feat, having earned a last-round berth in Melbourne, where she lost to Kim Clijsters. Clijsters, you will notice is absent from this final, as are Wozniacki, Azarenka, Zvonareva, Sharapova, and nearly every other major obstacle. Remaining is Schiavone, who won’t be a sentimental favorite, but whose second straight buzzsaw run through an entire half-field on a clay-courted Grand Slam event has proven she’s anything but flash and gone.