Skip to content Skip to sidebar Skip to footer

Li, Pennetta into Indian Wells semis

The Sports Network

Indian Wells, CA (SportsNetwork.com) - In a rematch of January's Australian Open final, Li Na once again beat Dominika Cibulkova, this time to reach the semifinals at the $5.9 million BNP Paribas Open tennis event.


Their quarterfinal affair on the hardcourts at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden saw the top-seeded world No. 2 Chinese star hold off the 12th-seeded Slovak, 6-3, 4-6, 6-3, in 2 hours, 36 minutes. Li is now 6-0 lifetime against the diminutive Cibulkova.


The 32-year-old Li is off to a brilliant 17-1 start this year and seeking a third title in four tournaments.


Her semifinal opponent will be 20th-seeded Italian veteran Flavia Pennetta, who outlasted 17th-seeded American Sloane Stephens in a tight three-set battle as well.


Stephens took the second set and jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the third before Pennetta won six of the final seven games to pull out a hard-earned 6-4, 5-7, 6-4 victory.


The other semi will pit second-seeded Polish star Agnieszka Radwanska against sixth-seeded rising Romanian Simona Halep, a winner of nine of her last 10 matches, including a recent title in Doha.


John McEnroe beat Ivan Lendl 7-6 (7-5) on Thursday night for his fourth PowerShares Series title of the season.


Roger Federer and Alexandr Dolgopolov were quarterfinal victors Thursday at the BNP Paribas Open, the first ATP Masters 1000 event of the year.



Spotlight | On tennis

The Sony Open will announce on Thursday that semi-retired former No.1 Martina Hingis has accepted a wild card to play doubles with friend Sabine Lisicki at the Key Biscayne tournament, which begins next week.



Post a Comment for "Li, Pennetta into Indian Wells semis"