Day 11 of the Australian Open

Day 11 was a bad day for the two Chinese women.  Na Li hung with Serena Williams the whole way through, but didn't have enough to beat the defending champion.  Serena who looked fatigued from the day before was playing at about 75%, but that was still enough to win 7-6, 7-6.  Li had her chances to make a match of it and force a third set, but when it got close Serena would put out the fire and did enough to stay ahead.

In the other womens semifinal Justine Henin put on a clinic in beating Jie Zheng.  Zheng couldn't do much of anything and that led to her not being able to compete with the Belgian former #1.  Henin sat on,  and just ate up Zheng's low speed serves.  Henin was able to make shots at will, and was a force at the net, overwhelming the small Zheng.  Zheng was able to show good movement and decent groundstrokes, but unforced errors and a lack of a serve is what did her in.  It took less than an hour for Henin to throttle Zheng 6-1, 6-0

In the night match Andy Murray was able to put himself into the mens final by taking a four set victory and ending the run of Croatian, Marin Cilic 3-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-2.   Cilic took an early lead by winning the first set, but after the first set Murray took control and won the next three to put himself into his 2nd career Grand Slam Final.  He'll face the winner of Roger Federer and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.

Day 12 Preview.

The only singles match of the day will be the second mens semifinal between Roger Federer and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.  The match will be a night match at Rod Laver Arena.  (How wonderful, another 3:30 am starting time.)  I really don't see how Tsonga can pull the upset on this one.  Tsonga did beat Federer the last time these two played, but it wasn't a best-of-five match at a Grand Slam.  Tsonga is dealing with the fatigue of having to go 5 sets in his last 2 matches.  Federer is on a mission and focused, which is a scary thing for someone having to play him.  Federer will win in 4 sets.  Setting up a rematch of the 2008 U.S. Open final that Federer won fairly easily.

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