Chinas Li through to Shenzhen semis

Date published : 03 Jan 2013 - 17:47:04

Chinese tennis star Li Na set up an all-Chinese semi-final in the Shenzhen Open on Thursday with a straight-sets victory over Serbian Bojana Jovanovski, while French player Marion Bartoli crashed out.

Li, the 2011 French Open singles winner and ranked seventh in the world, defeated Jovanovski 6-3, 6-3 in a match lasting just over one hour and 25 minutes.

Her Chinese counterpart Peng Shuai beat German Annika Beck 2-6, 7-5, 6-2, setting up the semi-final match against Li.

Thursday's surprise was the defeat of world-ranked number 11 Marion Bartoli of France at the hands of 28th-ranked Czech Klara Zakopalova.

Zakopalova beat second-seed Bartoli 6-3, 6-2, and will meet Monica Niculescu in the semi-finals after the Romanian beat Yi-Miao Zhou of China 6-4, 6-2.

The Shenzhen Open -- carrying total prize money of $500,000 -- is being played for the first time as tennis expands in China on the back of Li's huge popularity.

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