Serena Battles Into Semifinals

World No. 1 Serena Williams moved to within two victories of a record sixth Sony Ericsson Open title after battling past China’s Na Li 4-6, 7-6(1), 6-2 to reach the semifinals in Miami on Wednesday.

Williams suffered a slow start to the match and quickly found herself down 0-5 in the opening set. She rallied to bring the score line back to 5-4, but Li held her nerve to serve out the one-set lead at the third time of asking.

The 27-year-old Li held two break points on the Williams serve at 4-4 in the second set and one more at 5-5, but failed to convert. Likewise, Williams had two set point chances in the 12th game but was also denied and the set progressed to a tie-break – in which Williams raced out to a 6-1 lead and leveled the match on her first set point.

As more unforced errors began to creep into Li’s game, Williams was quick to capitalize in the deciding set and played solid tennis to break twice in the third and fifth games to lead 5-1. Li saved two match points at 2-5, despite serving three double faults in the game, but Williams held strong to serve out victory after two hours and seven minutes.

Reflecting on the match, Williams said: "[I] Definitely wasn't moving my feet at all (in the first set). I just wasn't doing anything that made a lot of sense at all. I'm a little disappointed. I don't think I played great, but I'm glad to have gotten through. I definitely played better in the third set, which was good. Because I needed to play pretty well to win the match."

It was Williams’ third successive victory over a Chinese opponent, having also dispatched No. 32 seed Shuai Peng and No. 17 Jie Zheng in the third and fourth rounds respectively.

It is the second Sony Ericsson Open quarterfinal loss that World No. 40 Li has suffered, having fallen also to Anna Chakvetadze in the last eight in 2007. The Monterrey runner-up, who ousted sixth seed Vera Zvonareva en route to the quarterfinals, is just two victories shy of her 300th tour-level match win (298-102 record).

The 27-year-old Williams has a sparkling 51-5 match record at the Sony Ericsson Open and is making her 11th main draw appearance. After finishing runner-up to her sister Venus in the 1999 final, Williams captured three consecutive titles in 2002 (d. Capriati), 2003 (d. Capriati) and 2004 (d. Dementieva) before regaining her title in 2007 with victory over Justine Henin. The Florida resident defeated Jelena Jankovic in the final last year to tie Steffi Graf’s all-time record of five titles. She has never lost a semifinal match in Miami.

Williams regained the top spot in the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour Rankings after winning her 10th Grand Slam singles championship at the Australian Open with victory over Dinara Safina. However, the American would relinquish her hold on the No. 1 ranking to her Russian rival should she fail to reach the Sony Ericsson Open final – despite Safina’s third round exit to Samantha Stosur.

With semifinal appearances at Sydney (l. to Dementieva), Paris (w/o vs. Dementieva) and Dubai (l. to V. Williams) to add to her Australian Open title, Williams has amassed a 20-2 match record on the season.

In the semifinals, Williams could face a 20th career meeting with her older sister Venus – should the No. 5 seed advance past No. 26 Iveta Benesova later on Wednesday. Venus holds a 10-9 career-lead over Serena, having won three of their past four matches in the 2008 Wimbledon final, the 2008 Tour Championships and in the Dubai semifinals.