Li Surprises World No.1 Williams in Second Round

China's Top 2 players have been making lots of noise on the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour over the last few months, and that noise certainly didn't quieten down in Stuttgart on Wednesday. Zheng Jie became the first Chinese player ever to beat a reigning world No.1 with her win over Ana Ivanovic at Wimbledon, and now Li Na has matched the feat with a win over Serena Williams at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix, a win that will also displace the American from that position next week.
 
Li, who enjoyed a lopsided 61 62 win over Nicole Vaidisova in the first round, seemed out of sorts early on in her match with the top-seeded Williams on Wednesday evening, losing her serve all three times and not even giving herself one break point during a 0-6 set. But she rebounded in a big way in the second set, taking it 6-1, and continued to withstand all of Williams' firepower in the third set to wrap up her first career victory over a reigning world No.1, 06 61 64.
 
"I didn't play well at all," said Williams, who was coming off her ninth Grand Slam singles title. "I started off really solid then my level dropped. In the third set she played really well and I didn't, and that was the difference. If you make that many unforced errors like I did at the end, you don't deserve to win the match."
 
By virtue of her second round loss, Williams will surrender her No.1 ranking on the October 6, 2008 rankings next Monday, to Serbia's Jelena Jankovic.
 
"To be quite honest I don't deserve it playing like that; I have to step it up and I will," Williams said. "I've been No.1 before and held it for a long time, so I know how that feels. At this stage of my career the titles are what matter to me - like this tournament. Winning the US Open this year and returning to No.1 after five years was an absolute highlight. I want to try and finish the year in that position."
 
Li notched her 11th career Top 10 win. Her previous best win in terms of ranking was over a No.3-ranked Svetlana Kuznetsova at the Olympics this past summer.
 
"After I lost the first set I checked the clock and saw it was only 20 minutes, so I told myself I had to make it at least an hour," Li said. "Of course I'm very happy about my win today, and for both of my wins over the Williams sisters this year."
 
In the other second round matches of the day, Victoria Azarenka cruised through the first set and rallied from 5-2 down in the second set to dispatch No.8 seed Agnieszka Radwanska, 61 75, while No.4 seed Elena Dementieva took on Sybille Bammer in the feature night match, winning that in straight sets, 61 64.
 
The last two first round matches were also played, with No.5 seed Kuznetsova falling to Patty Schnyder in a three set thriller, 64 46 75, and No.7 seed Vera Zvonareva beating Daniela Hantuchova handily, 63 62.
 
The Top 2-seeded teams were among those in first round doubles action. Top seeds Kveta Peschke and Rennae Stubbs won their opener easily but No.2 seeds Alona and Kateryna Bondarenko were bundled out in a match tie-break, losing to Jelena Kostanic Tosic and Tatiana Perebiynis, 67(7) 61 108.