MOSCOW, January 3 (R-Sport) - World No. 7 Li Na stormed into an all-Chinese semifinal at the inaugural Shenzhen Open on Thursday after dismissing Serbia’s Bojana Jovanovski in straight sets.
Li took a 6-3, 6-3 victory after an entertaining match that saw seven breaks of serve, with Li especially strong on the return in the second set, winning 21 of 35 points.
The top seed and Chinese No. 1 now faces her compatriot Shuai Peng, who came back from a set down to defeat Germany’s Annika Beck 2-6, 7-5, 6-2 earlier Thursday.
Li has won four of her five previous matches against Peng, the world No. 40 and sixth seed, although Peng won the first set in their last two meetings.
The other semifinal will pit either French second seed Marion Bartoli or Czech fifth seed Klara Zakopalova against either China’s Yi-Miao Zhou or Romania’s Monica Niculescu.
The $500,000 Shenzhen Open became China’s third WTA event this season and is part of the warm-up schedule for the Australian Open later this month.
Post comment
Rules on commentingUser: Log offRULES ON COMMENTING
By registering on RIA Novosti websites, user agrees to these rules.
User is obliged not to violate the laws of the Russian Federation.
User is obliged to be respectful of other commenters, readers and individuals referenced in the items being discussed.
User comment will be deleted if it:
User will be blocked from posting comments after multiple violations of the rules on commenting.
Login
Post comment
Rules on commentingUser: Log offRULES ON COMMENTING
By registering on RIA Novosti websites, user agrees to these rules.
User is obliged not to violate the laws of the Russian Federation.
User is obliged to be respectful of other commenters, readers and individuals referenced in the items being discussed.
User comment will be deleted if it:
User will be blocked from posting comments after multiple violations of the rules on commenting.
Login