Melbourne, Australia: Two-time finalist Li Na broke Lucie Safarova's serve in the second set when the Czech player was serving for the match and came back for a 1-6, 7-6 (2), 6-3 win in the third round of the Australian Open on Friday.
The victory came despite an out-of-sorts Li serving inconsistently and failing to take advantage of key break-point chances for much of the first two sets. But fourth-seeded Li dominated the tiebreaker, then broke Safarova in the eighth game of the deciding set before serving out.
She later joked that the heat wave wasn't warm enough, so wanted to play three sets.
Li, the 2011 French Open winner, lost to Victoria Azarenka in last year's Australian Open final and to Kim Clijsters in the 2011 decider at Melbourne Park.
