Flavia Pennetta pulled off the biggest upset of the BNP Paribas Open on Friday night, stunning No.1 seed Li Na in straight sets to reach the biggest final of her whole career.

The score was 7-6 (5), 6-3, and it was a struggle for both players most of the way.

Li had pounded winners past Pennetta in a crushing 6-2, 6-2 victory in the Australian Open quarter-finals in January.

But her bid to reach the final in the California desert for the first time on Friday was hampered by a welter of forehand errors and nine double faults.

Eight of her nine double faults came in the opening set, including one to hand Pennetta the set on her second set point in the tiebreaker.

Pennetta took control of the second set by breaking Li a final time to go up 5-3 and then serve for the set. After one deuce, the 32-year-old Italian fired a winner down the sideline to win the match.

The 20th-seeded Italian will play Poland's Agnieszka Radwanska, second seeded and ranked third. She survived a few shaky moments of her own to get to the final with a 6-3, 6-4 win over Simona Halep of Romania.

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