ISTANBUL: An apparently ailing Serena Williams struggled past Jelena Jankovic 6-4, 2-6, 6-4 on Saturday and will play Li Na in the final of the WTA Championships.
Li Na advanced to her first WTA Championships final by sweeping past 2011 winner Petra Kvitova 6-4, 6-2, setting up a showdown between the two oldest players in the tournament.
It was not clear what was bothering Williams, but she was in obvious discomfort. She walked slowly during changeovers, did not move well on the court and frequently held her head wrapped in a towel during changeovers. Williams tried to keep the points short and often winced.
Jankovic was unable to take advantage of whatever was bothering Williams, who is one win from her fourth WTA Championship and 11th title of the year.
Williams wasted a match point and failed to serve out the match at 5-2 and Jankovic won two straight games. Williams squandered two more match points before finally closing it out with a smash. By reaching the final, Li made sure of rising to a career-high No. 3 ranking, a jump of two places and the highest ranking for an Asian woman. Li is Chinese.
Like Williams, Li is unbeaten in four matches, after failing to advance from the group stage in the previous two years.
Williams, 32, and Li, 31, are the two oldest players in the elite, eight-woman tournament, while the fifth-seeded Kvitova is the youngest at 23. Li began by breaking serve and raced to 3-0, before allowing Kvitova to come back to 4-4. But a backhand winner from Li broke Kvitova again and she closed out the set with a cross-court forehand followed by a service winner.
Kvitova had no reply to Li’s forehand and was broken again in the second set to fall behind 3-2. After saving a break point, Li hit an ace to go up 4-2.(Agencies)
