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.
Chinese tennis star Li Na smiles in her game against Victoria Azarenka of Belarus during a tennis exhibition match in Thailand's resort seaside town of Hua Hin on December 29, 2012. Li 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.