The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : All-Chinese final in Estoril

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Sunday, May 07, 2006

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Sport - Tennis

All-Chinese final in Estoril

— PHOTO: AP

Li Na was a finalist last year in Oeiras.

ESTORIL: Jie Zheng and Li Na set up the first all-Chinese women's final at the WTA level as both won their semifinal matches at the Estoril Open on Saturday.

The unlikely pairing of eighth seed Li, who lost the 2005 final to Czech Lucia Safarova, and the sixth-seeded Jie, marks another step forward for the Chinese game.

Jie upended Italian top seed Flavia Pennetta with a straightforward 6-2, 6-3 victory while Li defeated France's Emilie Loit, winner of the event in 2004, by a 7-5, 6-2 scoreline.

Clijsters in final

Meanwhile, Kim Clijsters maintained her domination of Elena Dementieva on Saturday with a 7-5, 6-4 semifinal win at the Warsaw Open, which hands the Belgian her second final of the year.

Venus Williams falls

On Friday, Venus Williams fell 6-4, 6-2 to two-time finalist Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia in the quarterfinals. Kuznetsova, who finished as runner-up in 2004 and 2005, will now take on Anna Chakvetadze, who defeated Serbia's Ana Ivanovic 4-6, 6-2, 6-4, for a place in the final.

The results:

At Warsaw (WTA J&S Cup): Semifinals: Kim Clijsters bt Elena Dementieva 7-5, 6-4. Quarterfinals: Svetlana Kuznetsova bt Venus Williams 6-4, 6-2; Elena Dementieva bt Agnieszka Radwanska 5-7,6-3, 6-1; Anna Chakvetadze bt Ana Ivanovic 4-6, 6-2, 6-4.

At Munich (ATP BMW Open): Semifinals: Kristof Vliegen bt Jarkko Nieminen 6-1, 6-2. Quarterfinals: Juergen Melzer bt Ivo Karlovic 7-6(4), 6-1; Olivier Rochus bt Denis Gremelmayr 6-4, 7-5.

At Oeiras (ATP & WTA Estoril Open): Men: Quarterfinals: David Nalbandian bt Frederico Gil 6-1, 6-2; Nikolay Davydenko bt Gilles Muller 6-4, 6-4; Carlos Moya bt Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 7-6(4), 6-4; Albert Portas bt Justin Gimelstob 6-4, 6-3.

Women: Semifinals: Zheng Jie bt Flavia Pennetta 6-2, 6-3; Li Na bt Emilie Loit 7-5, 6-2. Doubles: Final: Li Na/Sun Tiantian bt Gisela Dulko/Maria Sanchez Lorenzo 6-2, 6-2. — Agencies

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