Serena beats Li Na; reaches 5th Australian Open final

A banged-up and heavily bandaged Serena Williams displayed the championship mettle that took her to eleven major titles in dispatching a stubborn Na Li of China to reach the 2010 Australian Open championship final. Serena, barely moving and playing her worst match of the tournament did just enough to beat the Chinese #1, 7-4(4), 7-6(1). With the victory, Serena improved her Australian Open semifinals record to 5-0.

Williams started strongly, getting 2 breaks and going up 5-2 in the first set. She had a set point at 5-4 in the first set but was unable to convert. Li took her first lead of the set at 6-5, but Serena won the next service game to force the tiebreak. The tiebreak featured poor serving from both players and Serena raced to a 6-3 lead. Li saved a set point to make it 6-4 before Serena delivered a second serve ace to capture the set.

In the second set, both players stayed on serve with Serena using her big serves to save break points that came against her. Serving to stay in the match at 4-5, Li saved 3 match points to stay even at 5-5. Undeterred, Serena held at love to move up 6-5, and keep the pressure on Li. The Chinese #1 held two game points at 40-15 before losing three straight points and handling the American her fourth match point. Li continued to save that and held to force a second set tiebreak.

In the tiebreak, Serena was far more the steadier player while Li made several unforced players to let the defending champion grab a 6-1 lead. Serena didn't waste any more match point by serving an ace to win the set and the match. Serena will vie for her fifth Australian Open title when she meets the winner of the Justine Henin - Zheng Jie semifinal.

The major concern for Serena will be the rest she will be getting before the championship on Saturday night. She is scheduled to play with sister Venus in the semifinals of the women's doubles. If the pair wins, they will contest the doubles finals championship on Friday. That will give Serena just a 24 hour period to recover before taking to court to try and defend her Australian Open title.

Stats for the match:

- Serena served 12 aces and had 2 double faults, Li had 1 ace and 6 double faults
- Serena had 33 winners against 24 unforced errors, Li had 21 winners against 38 unforced errors
- Serena won 96 points while Li won 85
- The first set took 58 minutes while the second was completed in 64 minutes