Victoria Azarenka was not exactly the crowd favorite, but the defending champion refused to give up, putting her blinkers on, and taking advantage of Li Na's injury problems to clinch her second straight Australian Open title.
Azarenka fought back from a set down, with Li, clearly hampered by an ankle problem, going down fighting 4-6, 6-4, 6-3, in a little under three hours.
The first set was all about who could make the lesser mistakes, with the set holding as little quality as excitement. Whatever quality that was there in the set, came from the racket of Li.
There were five breaks of serve in the first six games, with Li taking four of those, as Azarenka struggled to make any real shots, with her willing running and louder grunting having little impact.
Li was going for broke in most points, and that caused her to make quite a few errors, 18 in all to Azarenka's 14 in the set.
The majority of the crowd was clearly on Li's side and the 30-year-old showed the greater resolve in the end to take the set 6-4, with Azarenka only holding her serve once. The defending champion had just four winners in the whole set, to Li's 12.
The second set needed the world number one to come out much better, and she did, albeit aided by a cluster of errors from the former French Open champion.
Li's tactics of trying to hit a winner at the first opportunity and finding the corners, like she did at will in the semifinals against Maria Sharapova, was not quite working, as Azarenka took control early on.
At 3-1 in the second set, Azarenka got a taste of her own medicine, with Li calling for a medical timeout after rolling her ankle - although this was rather more obvious with the Chinese clearly in some pain. A lot of heavy tape was put on her left ankle, and Li seemed to be moving OK.
The No. 6 seed clawed her way back into the set, levelling it at 4-4, and looked to be slowly taking control back with some outstanding winners, running the Belarusian ragged all around the court.
However, Azarenka brought her plucky big-match skills out at the right time, immediately breaking again for a 5-4 lead, before holding comfortably to force a decider.
The third set began like the first, with the two players exchanging breaks in the opening two games, before Li held for a 2-1 lead. The match was held up for ten minutes after that with fireworks going around Melbourne in recogntition of Australia Day.
As is her wont, Azarenka, who had just 18 winners all match to Li's 36, went into the locker room to get a little bit of treatment; but with the fireworks still going at full steam, it did not disrupt her opponent's momentum.
However, the first point of the fourth game produced some more drama, with Li rolling her left ankle yet again going for a backhand winner down the line. The concern, more than the ankle, though, was her head, after she banged it hard on her way down.
Such is the likeability of the Chinese that she couldn't stop herself from laughing as the doctor asked her to follow her finger with her eye to check the damage, with the crowd joining in.
However, there did seem to be some real concern, with Li forced to take a medical timeout, with both her left ankle and her head causing her problems.
One thing that did not change was Li's tactics in the match, continuing to go for winners, earning herself a break point in the game, which Azarenka did well to save and then eventually hold.
Azarenka broke the next game and then consolidated to take a 4-2 lead, with Li making one unforced error after another.
Li, who finished with a massive 57 unforced errors to Azarenka's 28, had a chance to break back at 3-4, but Azarenka again held her nerve, forcing her opponent to hold serve to stay in the championship.
Azarenka fought hard and broke Li's serve for a second time in the set, with tears of joy and disbelief taking over after Li hit a backhand long at match point.