Australian Open: Li Na advances to third round

Melbourne, Jan 16 (IANS) Sixth-seed Chinese tennis player Li Na survived a second-set scare en route to the third round of the Australian Open here Wednesday.

The 2011 French Open winner beat Belarusian Olga Govortsova 6-2, 7-5 to reach the third round for the second consecutive year, reports Xinhua.

Li started strongly and breezed through the first set in 32 minutes, dropping just two games and hitting a number of impressive forehand winners.

Govortsova showed some fight to break early in the second set and built a 4-2 lead.

The 30-year-old won five of the next six games to break Govortsova’s stubborn resistance and earn a place in the last 32.

Li faced two set points at 3-5 in the ninth game of the second set but came back to level at 5-5 before breaking Govortsova’s serve to clinch the match.

"Actually I think I did well in the first set." said Li. "Maybe I became overconfident and gave the opponent too many chances. And I didn’t play as hard as in the first set."

Li will face the winner of the match between Kristyna Pliskova of Czech Republic and 27th seed Sorana Cirstea of Romania Friday.