WTA Cincinnati - Li Na defeates injured Venus Williams in three sets to reach final

After struggling for most of the season, China's Li Na is through to her second final in as many weeks, beating Venus Williams in the semi finals on Saturday at the WTA Western & Southern Union Open in Cincinnati.

Li Na won finally 75 36 61 recovering from a mid match collapse - losing seven of nine games from 75 20 up to find herself at 1-all in the third. She then reeled off five games in a row to complete the win.

Williams, playing her first semi final in two years on tour, was slowed down by a back injury.

"I pretty much couldn't serve," Venus told the media. "I wanted to try though. Especially since this was my first semifinal of the year, I wanted to try to see if I could get to the final.
"Right now I don't know why my back hurts. I just know it hurts. After this I'm going to get an evaluation and see what exactly is happening with it."

"When she called the physio, I think I lost my mind a little bit, because it looked like the match was over," Li told the press. "But after she stood up she was still fighting. The last two years I never got one point in North America - it's amazing I'm in another final. After Montréal I felt very tired. I got here and my coach sent me a text message saying the most important thing is the first match here. I don't know what happened, but the ball is going in the court all the time."