Kim Clijsters claimed her fourth Grand Slam on Saturday, defeating Li Na in what was one of the better women’s finals of recent years.
Li raced out to an opening set lead from her solid power-hitting base, but Clijsters responded, reacted and changed her game to take the final two sets and, with it, her first ever Happy Slam title.
Clijsters’ comeback hinged on much more than unforced errors, instead featuring elite defense and a series of tactical moves and inch-perfect ground strokes that battered Li into submission.
Here’s a brief breakdown and analysis of a few ways Clijsters toppled Li and truly earned the right to call herself “Aussie Kim.”
You can see where this women's final ranks in the last decade by viewing my slideshow here.
First set
Li Na made the most of the break point chances she earned in the first set, but it was all set up by decent serving, backhands down the line and cross-court forehands.
Although Li’s first-serve percentage (62 percent) was below her tournament average (70 percent), it was clear that her gameplan was to attack the Clijsters forehand with the first serve and then go to the backhand with the slower second serve.
The image on the left shows the service pattern (with first serves highlighted with red dots), while the graphic on the right shows the winners that she hit.
Clijsters, usually so strong from the baseline on the backhand side, didn't seem to have a great idea what to do with the hard, flat ground strokes of Li, and she made a number of unexpected errors from the middle of the court that seemed out of character.
The graphic below shows that Clijsters struggled most when she was dealing not with angled balls hit to the edges of the court, but with low balls deep on her backhand wing.
These weren't generally shots where she was trying to lace a winner, rather just balls that she was trying to return deep to put pressure on Li.
Second Set
After falling behind 2-3, Clijsters reeled off four consecutive games to tie the match up at a set apiece and force a decider for the championship.
She was serving better, returning more aggressively and really going for her shots and that really proved to be a decisive factor, as Li's game remained more or less unchanged.
Maybe just as important as her decision to mix up her game with slices, topspin forehands and looped returns was her ability to pull Li outside the court to open up space for her forehand.
I counted six forehand winners from the baseline and a couple more volleys at the net as Clijsters really started to beat Li at her own game.
Just as Li sent down a barrage of baseline winners in the second set of her semifinal against Caroline Wozniacki, Clijsters did exactly the same.
On the left is a graphic showing Clijsters' second-set winners against Li, while the one on the right shows Li's second-set winners against Wozniacki for comparison.
Note the similarities in the ability to hit clean winners from short balls, to put away chances at the net and the skill to hit precisely to either court off either wing.
Li knew Clijsters was going to hit a lot of winners from the forehand wing (she had 66 in her other matches) and it proved to be how she fought back into things today.
Li was looking really comfortable at a set and 2-2, so it;s no surprise that Clijsters went back to what she feels most comfortable with. 
One final observation from that second set was about Li's return game. She came into the final having won more points on an opponent's first serve than anybody else in the tournament.
She had the right idea to be patient with Clijsters in the first set when the Belgian was struggling mightily on serve, but she made absolutely no changes when Clijsters upped her first-serve percentage to 72 percent in the second.
As you can see, she was being much less aggressive on the second serve in the deuce court in the second set (right), and because Clijsters was making a lot more serves up the middle, Li really couldn't get comfortable in one spot as she could in the first, when she knew that every serve at 15-15 or deuce was coming right into her happy zone on the forehand.
Third Set
If you want to talk about how efficient Clijsters was in that third set, look no further than the fact that she dropped just one point on her first serve and that she made just five unforced errors to Li's 15.
Li began pressing and trying to hit her way back into contention, but Clijsters' defense was remarkable and her forehand held up under the scrutiny of the big points.
She got into the court to attack balls that were coming back with little pace, and just as she hit deep winners down the line, she also used the angles to go cross court with passing shots.
Between better serving, a more reliable forehand, an adaptable gameplan, fewer unforced errors from the baseline and a rugged determination not to let any balls get past her, Clijsters was able to see off Li 6-3 in the third to etch her name onto the trophy and forever into history.
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