MELBOURNE, Australia — Li Na became the first Chinese player to reach a Grand Slam singles final, saving a match point before beating top- ranked Caroline Wozniacki 3-6, 7-5, 6-3 today in the Australian Open semifinals.
Wozniacki, playing in a major for the first time with the No. 1 ranking, had match point at 5-4 and 40-30 in the second set before Li rallied. An hour and six minutes later, she served out on her first match point.
Li, who lost to Serena Williams in two tiebreak sets in the semifinals here last year, will meet Kim Clijsters or No. 2 Vera Zvonareva in the final.
Li beat Clijsters in the final of the lead-up event at Sydney this month, becoming the first Chinese woman to win a WTA premier event. It was just another first for Li, who was the first Chinese player to win a tour-level title and the first to enter the top 10.
“I’m so happy I can be the first Chinese player to come to a final — I always do the first one!” she said in a lighthearted interview after the match in which she joked about losing sleep on the eve of the match because her coach-husband Shan Jiang was snoring.
Asked what motivated her comeback, she deadpanned: “Prize money.”
On Wednesday night, Rafael Nadal wiped the tears from his eyes with his taped-up fingers.
His Rafa Slam was evaporating. The 25-match winning streak in Grand Slams and his bid to become the first man since Rod Laver in 1969 to hold all four major titles at once was three games from ending.
Nadal was hurt. He was down two sets and a break. It was the same court, and the same round, where he retired in the Australian Open last year. Yet the idea of packing it in didn’t even enter his mind.
“I hate the retirements,” he said, “This wasn’t the day. I did last year. I hate that moment. . . . Didn’t want to repeat that.”
Six games later, Nadal was out of the tournament, losing 6-4, 6-2, 6-3 to fellow Spaniard David Ferrer night in Rod Laver Arena, the center court at Melbourne Park named after the Australian great whose four consecutive majors he was trying to match.
“It’s a victory for me. But it’s not a victory really,” Ferrer said.
Henin retires
BRUSSELS — Former No. 1 player Justine Henin retired from tennis for a second time, citing a lingering right elbow injury that cut short her comeback from a glittering career that included seven Grand Slam titles.
