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Li Na reaches her first ever WTA final
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2004-10-03 10:48

China's Li Na advanced to her first ever WTA tour final on Saturday after defeating compatriot Ting Li 6-3, 6-3 in the semifinal of the 170, 000-dollar Guangzhou WTA tennis tournament.

"I'm very happy and proud to have reached my first WTA Tour final and to have it happen in my home country," said Li.

"I've played well this week and look forward to tomorrow," added the top player of China.


The unseeded Li, who is the first Chinese woman to reach a WTA final since Li Fang in 1998, will take on Slovak Martina Sucha on Sunday.

A winner in Hobart two years ago, Sucha, 23, who is also unseeded in the tournament and ranks 91 in the world, ousted former junior champion Barbora Strycova of the Czeck Republic 6-2, 7-5.

"It was a difficult match under difficult conditions. All week it has been hot and humid and today it was dry and very windy," said Sucha, adding that "the key of the match was to keep focus."

Of her finalist opponent, Sucha said, "Li Na is playing very good tennis in this tournament and she is going to be tough."

The 22-year-old Li, who ranked a career-high 123 four years ago but is currently 145, has impressed at home at the lower levels of the game, winning three ITF titles in China this season on her way to a 42-3 record.

At the China Open in Beijing two weeks ago, her first main draw appearance at WTA level since playing in the Shanghai three years before, she pushed US Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova to her extreme before bowing out 6-3, 6-7 (8-6), 7-6 (7-3).



 
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