Li Na tumbles out of Qatar Open

Top-seeded Li Na’s Australian Open triumph last  month was followed by a stunning tumble when she lost to a qualifier in the  third round of the Qatar Open on Thursday.

The celebrated Chinese player was beaten 7-6 (7-2), 2-6, 6-4 by Petra  Cetkowska, a Czech ranked outside the top 100, in a topsy-turvy contest in Li’s  first tournament since her Grand Slam triumph in Melbourne.

She seemed to have turned the match around when she came from behind to  lead 3-1 in the final set, but then appeared to run out of steam in a two-hour  46-minute contest in which her ratio of errors increasingly soared.

Her consolations are that she will still be world number two for the first  time – the highest ever by an Asian player – at the end of the week, and that  she mostly stuck to an ambitiously aggressive game plan despite a disruptive  wind.

“I don’t think my performance was so bad,” Li said. “Though if I had  continued more coming to the net it would have been better. A defeat is not  always so bad either. At least I fought and I got information from what  happened. I will put that information straight into my training.”

Li paid tribute to Cetkowska, whose performance suggested she is recovering  well from injuries which caused her to plunge from the world’s top 30.