Li upsets Venus to reach semi-finals of Australian Open

Melbourne, Jan 27 (ANI): China's Li Na became second player from her country to reach the semi-finals of the Australian Open after she defeated World No.6 Venus Williams 2-6 7-6 (7-4) 7-5.

Li fought back to win and reach her first grand slam semi-final and is expected face another Williams, No.1 seed Serena, if Serena beats Victoria Azarenka of Belarus in the last women's quarter-final.

It's for the first time that China has had two players in the semi-finals of a grand slam together with Li joining compatriot Zheng Jie.

"It's the best day of my whole life. It's good for both players and it's good for Chinese tennis," Fox Sports quoted Li, as saying.

Venus Williams was off to a blistering start when she broke the Chinese player in the first and third games and held serve effortlessly to reach 4-0 and take the first set.

She started the same way in the second set, with an opening break of serve although Li broke back to level in the fourth game and then broke again to stretch the games to 5-5 as Williams served for the match.

Li clinched the following tiebreaker before the deciding set became a matter of which player could manage to hold serve.

From the second to the seventh games there were six service breaks in a row.

Li surpsassed her previous best grand slam performance, which was a quarter-final berth at both the 2009 US Open and Wimbledon in 2006. (ANI)