French Open: Li d. Cirstea

When we last left Li Na, she was standing in a steady drizzle watching the title at the Rome Premier event slip through her fingers and right into the greedy little digits of Maria Sharapova. You recall, Li led by 6-4, 4-0 before the astonishing comeback that left Sharapova holding the trophy.

The result was a mixed blessing for Li on the eve of the French Open, where she is defending champion. On the positive side, she had gone as deep as possible without winning. On the down side, the letdown that enabled her to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory was ominous, when you contemplated the combination of her penchant for losing the plot and the pressure she would be under as the titleholder in Paris.

Things only got more grim when Li drew the dangerous, aggressive Sorana Cirstea of Romania as her first round-opponent.

Li fans needn't have worried—the first Asian Grand Slam singles champion of either sex ripped through Cirstea today, 6-2, 6-1, on Court Philippe Chatrier with a beautifully balanced show of firepower off both wings, her cross-court forehand (surprisingly) no less devastating than her down-the-line backhand. It may have been the best performance by Li since, well, since she won here last year.

Li is the WTA No. 7, but she's in danger of falling out of the Top 10 if she doesn't make it as far as the third round in Paris. She played today with the kind of urgency demanded by that uncomfortable fact.

Cirstea is a mercurial No. 43, and the best antidote to the power she can muster and the risks she's willing to take is excellent movement and anticipation. Li had both today, amply demonstrating why it's such a pleasure to watch her on one of her good days. With no superflous elements or conspicuously moving parts, her game is nothing less than elegant.

Li opened the match with a break, and sliced through her own first service game. By the time Li earned her next break, with a cross-court forehand blast that forced a forehand error in the third game, it was clear that she was going to meet Cirstea's apparent game plan head-on. Li would embrace the repeated challenges to her forehand and swing freely and with intent to harm. She hit deep and she hit true.

In the blink of an eye, it was 4-0.

Cirstea managed to hold the following game, firing an ace at deuce and teasing out a forehand service return error. Li fell behind 15-40 in the next game, and it seemed that things might get a bit more interesting for Cirstea's backers, but Li dispatched the first break point with a service winner to Cirstea's backhand, and reached deuce via forehand error. A Li backhand winner followed by a backhand error by Cirstea finished off the comeback—and, for all intents and purposes, Cirstea.

Although Cirstea held with a four-point game for 2-5, this was not a day on which Li's resolve was in question. In the next game, she bolted out to 40-o on the strength of two forehand winners and a forehand error by Cristea, and polished off her first set point with a service winner to the forehand.

In the second set, Cirstea won the first point of the first game, but comprehensively collapsed shortly thereafter, producing a game-ending double fault to put Li a break up to start things off. But she wasn't able to run away with it just yet. Li fell behind 15-40 in the next game. She wiped away the first break point with a cross-court forehand winner.

Credit Li for rolling out one of those shots that can unobtrusively alter or maintain the course of a match on that second break point. She hit a big, risky kicker out wide near the line. All Cirstea could do was go fishing for it, and it proved to be one that got away. From deuce, a service-return error and a down-the-line backhand that forced a Cirstea error left Li up 2-0.

Cirstea fell behind 15-40 in the next game on the strength of three blazing winners by Li. A pair of service winners granted Cirstea a stay, but after two deuces, Li hit an aggressive, down-the-line backhand that forced an error, and followed up with a service return that was too hot for Cirstea to handle. With the insurance break in hand at 3-0, Li had clear sailing the rest of the way.