Serena Williams would have been expecting to face sister Venus in the semi-finals.

Instead she is up against Li Na, one of the many rising Chinese stars making their mark in world tennis at the moment. She has done extremely well to reach this stage, defeating Daniela Hantuchova, Caroline Wozniacki and now Venus Williams all in succession.

Both players were somewhat lucky to get through their quarter-finals. Serena trailed Victoria Azarenka by 6-4, 4-0 but produced some blistering tennis to leave Azarenka wondering where she had gone wrong.

Li Na was 6-2, 5-3 down against Venus Williams and benefited from a bit of a choke from the American who had more than enough chances to close the match out but kept letting Li Na back in and the Chinese player secured a scrappy 3-6, 7-6, 7-5 win.

Serena is the overwhelming favourite to reach the final. She has won this title four times while this is Li Na’s first experience of a grand slam semi-final.

Serena also looks to be in the better form, her quarter-final with Azarenka was a quality match with both women striking an abundance of winners. In contrast, Li Na’s match with Venus Williams was decided on who made the least errors with the two players generating over one hundred between them.

They have played four times before, with Serena leading 3-1, winning twice last year on the hard courts of Miami and Stanford.

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