Chinese Li loses in bronze medal play-off at Olympic tennis

BEIJING, Aug. 17 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Li Na lost to Russian world No. 11 Vera Zvonareva 6-0, 7-5 in the bronze medal play-off match of the Olympic tennis tournament on Sunday. With the victory, Zvonareva improved to a 2-2 record against Li lifetime. Li, the former world number 16, dropped the opening set at love in only 19 minutes. Li showed some signs of recovery in the beginning of the second set, leading at 3-1 after breaking in the third game, but the Russian mounted a strong comeback to break back to level the match at 3-3. After exchanging break again, Zvonareva claimed the last two games to win the set at 7-5 and only needed 75 minutes overall to close out the match. Ranked No. 42 in the world, Li missed a large part of the year after undergoing right-knee surgery at the end of March, returning in mid-June. She also... [read full story]