Injured Venus loses to Li Na

Her opponent was injured but China’s Li Na will not mind. What matters to her is that she just defeated former champion Venus Williams 7-5 3-6 6-1 and has booked a place in the finals with German Angelique Kerber at the Cincinnati Open final.

Venus was limited in her serve speed, which hovered around a slow 120 km/h mark after picking up a injury shortly before the match began.

“Just in my warm-up, it was bothering me,” Williams said. “I was like ‘Oh, no’. I tried to fix it between the warm-up and the match, but it didn’t work.

“Right now, I don’t know why my back hurts, I just know it hurts,” said Williams, who will be hoping she regains full fitness for the US Open later this month. “After this, I’m going to get an evaluation and see what exactly is happening.”

Venus has not been a popular name in female championships in recent times as this was her first semifinal since the 2010 US Open.

Venus who just came back from illness this year, double-faulted on break point to go 2-3 down in the first set, but relying on her return game, she battled back to 5-5. Li sneaked back ahead 6-5 after Venus made a crucial double-fault on game point.

Williams got an on-court massage to her back and got better in the second set to win five consecutive games en route to taking it 6-3 to level the match. She could not sustain her resurge in the third set. She ran out of energy and was convincingly beaten 1-6 as the ninth seed Li went in for the kill.

Li expressed delight at her victory; “It’s amazing this year, because in the last two years, I hardly got a point in North America,” the 2011 French Open champion said afterwards. “So I’m happy I can be in the final again.”

She will face the Wimbledon semifinalist Kerber who overcame a grueling ficture winning Czech Petra Kvitova 6-1 2-6 6-4 to reach her fourth final of the year and her biggest yet.