Li fights off scare to reach semifinals
Print Edition
Chinese superstar Li Na battled her way to yet another victory yesterday, downing Romania’s Monica Niculescu after three action-filled sets in the women’s singles quarterfinal of the Shenzhen Open in Guangdong Province.
Li, Asia’s highest-ranked player in tennis history, opened strongly, besting Niculescu 7-5 in the first set.
The 26-year-old Romanian fought back with a 6-4 win in the second set, before Li toppled her 6-4 in the third.
Li, 31, is the defending Shenzhen Open champion and is also the world No. 3 player.
Fifth-seed Peng Shuai gave the fans more to cheer as she soared to a 6-3, 6-2 victory over Slovakia’s Jana Cepelova.
American Vania King bested Barbora Zahlavova Strycova of the Czech Republic 6-2, 6-4, while eighth-seeded Annika Beck of Germany came back to defeat Austria’s Patricia Mayr-Achleitner 3-6, 6-3, 6-1.
In Australia, Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova are set to renew their long and not-so-friendly rivalry in the semifinals at the Brisbane International.
The pair played back-to-back quarterfinals on center court yesterday, with the third-seeded Sharapova beating 2012 Brisbane champion Kaia Kanepi of Estonia 4-6, 6-3, 6-2. She dropped three service games in the first set and another to open the second before finding her range and staging her comeback against the No. 30-ranked Kanepi.
The top-ranked Williams, the defending champion, didn’t lose a point on serve in the first set en route to a 6-3, 6-3 win over ninth-seeded Diminika Cibulkova of Slovakia.
Williams has a 14-2 record and 13-match winning streak against Sharapova dating back to the 2005 Australian Open semifinals.
As far as any grudges go, Williams said yesterday: “It’s very difficult I think for anyone to be best buddies when you’re so competitive.”
Asked how she’d describe their rivalry now, Sharapova replied: “Well, I think I got to win a few times in order to call it rivalry.”
“I haven’t had a lot of success against her,” she added. Other winners included second-seeded Victoria Azarenka and fourth-seeded Jelena Jankovic.
In men’s matches, Marius Copil, Lleyton Hewitt and Jeremy Chardy all won.
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