Defending champion Kim Clijsters reached the fourth round of the Australian Open by beating Slovakia's Daniela Hantuchova in straight sets on Friday night.
Clijsters edged a close first set before running away with the second to win 6-3, 6-2.
Clijsters will now meet Li Na in a repeat of last year's final.
Li progressed easily from the third round in unfortunate circumstances as Anabel Medina Garrigues was forced to retire after injuring her ankle in the third game of the match.
Last year's finalist won the first two games before her Spanish opponent fell on the baseline and although she bravely attempted to continue after treatment the match ended with the score at 3-0.
Clijsters' match was her first on Melbourne Park's secondary court since she had a meltdown against Nadia Petrova two years ago and lost 6-0, 6-1 in 52 minutes, her heaviest ever defeat at a grand slam.
"I wanted to play well, to really focus and not let that happen again," she said after the match.
"I think it made me focus a bit more."
Clijsters was not at her best against Hantuchova, whom she last met in Brisbane two weeks ago when a hip injury forced her to withdraw from their semi-final.
The match was closer than the scoreline suggested, with Hantuchova missing a number of chances to put pressure on the defending champion with some simple mistakes.
The 11th-seeded Belgian broke Hantuchova five times in the match, but was broken twice herself as she made only 56 per cent of her first serves.
Clijsters also made 18 unforced errors in a sometimes sloppy display but was rescued by her ability to smash winners from all over the court. She hit 27 of them compared with 12 from Hantuchova.
"I wasn't playing my best tennis but I fought all the way," Clijsters said.
"I just tried to do my best out there."
AFP
Tags: australian-open, tennis, sport, melbourne-3000, vic, australia First posted January 20, 2012 20:49:28
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