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Li Na of China, in her third appearance in the women’s final down under (second consecutive final) defeated diminutive Dominka Cibulkova of Slovakia 7-6, 6-0 to win the 2014 women’s title at the Australian Open. Congrats to Li Na! I really like her, she is not only a tremendous talent on the tennis court, she is funny, witty and entertaining off the court as well. Who cannot enjoy her interviews, especially when she make fun of her husband, Dennis, and his snoring. Today, she did not let us down, on the court or in her post match interview. She thanked her agent for making her rich (she pondered retirement after Wimbledon but he talked her out of it), she thanked Dennis for giving up his life to travel with her, hit with her, get her water, and in general, take care of things. She said he was famous in China (tongue in cheek) and he was lucky to have found her. I think they were likely lucky to have found each other. Very dominating performance by Li Na after a very nervous start to the first set, she trailed 4-5 before recovering and taking the set to a tie break and prevailing. The second set, well 6-0 says it all. Also, congrats to #20 Cibulkova for a great tournament down under. Li Na will move to #3 in the new rankings out on Monday, and is very close to overtaking #2, Victoria Azarenka.
Tonight, 1 Rafa Nadal vs. 8 Stan Wawrinka in the men’s final. Go Stan! Rafa is the heavy favorite, of course. I will be very interested to see how the men’s rankings shake out on Monday. Stan will become the #1 tennis guy in Switzerland (over Roger Federer, gasp!) but I do not understand how Fed can drop from #6 in the world. He defended his quarterfinal points from last year’s Australian Open in which he fell to Andy Murray in five sets and made it to the semifinals. He defeated both Tsonga and #4 Murray. Also, #5 Del Potro went out early and #3 David Ferrer lost before advancing as far as Roger. So, we shall see how it all shakes out.
In other sports news… Melo went crazy and scored 62 points setting a single game scoring record for the New York Knicks. At the Farmers Insurance Open in La Jolla, CA, Tiger Woods missed the secondary cut for the first time ever in his career with a score of 79 and Phil Mickelson withdrew due to a sore back. Woodland leads the young sensation Jordan Spieth from Texas by one stroke heading into tomorrow’s final round.
