Chinese gun powers on as injured Azarenka falls

LI Na, the first Chinese singles player to win a Grand Slam title, added another significant first to her collection on Friday by reaching the WTA Championships semifinals in Istanbul.

Li’s trampling 6-2 6-1 win over an ailing Victoria Azarenka carried her to the last four of the tour’s flagship tournament for the first time.

Another victory overnight, where she will face Petra Kvitova, will make her the first Chinese player to ever climb as high as number three in the world.

From early on there was little doubt that the uncompromising flat hitting of Li, 31, would earn her revenge for her narrow loss to Azarenka at the Australian Open final in January.

By the sixth game the world number two from Belarus was suffering from a lower back injury, which required three lots of treatment and significantly impaired her movement although Li had already been looking the more potent attacker.

Azarenka decided against retiring, even though she was often yelling in pain and sometimes close to tears.

‘‘I thought after the first set she would retire,’’ Li said. ‘‘It was tough for me to focus all the time. But you never know what will happen.’’

Friday’s setback ensured that Azarenka, who also lost to Jelena Jankovic, would be eliminated, while the former world number one from Serbia qualified instead.

She had a semifinal match against world number one Serena Williams, who had already completed three wins on Thursday.

The disappointment almost seemed like a relief to Williams’ closest rival.

‘‘I need to look at what’s happened and learn more about how to prevent some of these injuries, then I will be ready ( for next year) for sure,’’ added Azarenka.

Meanwhile Jankovic lost 6- 4 6- 4 in her last group match to Sara Errani, the sixth-seeded Italian.

However a more important calculation for Jankovic was almost certainly that of managing her energy for a bigger and more important performance against Williams.

That is because the one set that Jankovic won in a lengthy encounter with Li Na had guaranteed — irrespective of the result of the last group match — that she would still finish higher in the group table than Errani.

Errani’s conquest of Jankovic merely meant that she was able to force Azarenka, originally billed as Williams’ closest rival, down into bottom place.

Kvitova kept alive her title chances with a 6-7 (3-7) 6-2 6-3 win over Angelique Kerber.