China's Li Na has failed to advance in women's singles at the
Qatar Open while two Chinese pairs have reached the women's doubles
semi-finals.
During the quarter-final match Thursday night, Li Na fought hard
against world number eight Nadia Petrova of Russia.
She stayed strong after her serve had been broken by the
powerful Russian rival in the first game, going head to head until
the tenth game when she committed some errors to give up the first
set 6-4.
Li was obviously shaken by her mistakes and lost the first game
again in the second set. However, she recovered to break Petrova's
serve and even the score. But Petrova's serves finally proved too
powerful, sealing the set at 6-4.
It's Li Na's fourth loss against world top ten players in recent
years, losing all matches with close scores.
Earlier, in women's doubles quarter-finals, Australian Open
champions Yan Zi and Zheng Jie and Athens Olympic champions Li Ting
and Sun Tiantian have all defeated their rivals to reach the
semi-finals.
Second seeded Yan and Zheng have managed to score four out of
nine break points to win the match 7-5, 6-3.
Li and Sun beat their rivals 7-6, 6-4.
(CRI English March 3, 2006)