China’s Li Na has retained her perfect match record this season by upsetting world No.1 and top seed Caroline Wozniacki and becoming the first Asian player in the Open Era to reach a Grand Slam final in singles.

The victory didn't come without excitement – Wozniacki took the first set as Li made 17 unforced errors to 7 winners, and then the Dane had a match point at 5-4 in the second set. The thing that makes tennis amazing is that it's never over til it's over – Li shot a risky forehand, saved the match point and eventually won the set 7-5. In the third set Li again had more unforced errors than winners, although only two more, but Wozniacki hit zero winners! Can't beat that!

The ninth-seeded Li won the match 3-6 7-5 6-3 and continued to write tennis history for China.

Li’s opponent in the championship match will be Kim Clijsters, who has played in the finals of three of four Grand Slams, although she was victorious only at the US Open. With a 6-3 6-3 victory over second seed Vera Zvonareva in the semis, third-seeded Clijsters closely approached her second straight Grand Slam title.  But before the Belgian holds the winner's trophy, she'll have to overcome Li, who defeated her this month in the Sydney final. As for overall career record, Clijsters leads Li 4-2.

Additional info: Reuters has a great factbox about the progress of Chinese tennis. (photos: Tidalist)

Vera Zvonareva and Kim Clijsters joined Caroline Wozniacki and Li Na in the semifinals of the 2011 Australian Open, after the Russian second seed defeated Petra Kvitova 6-2 6-4 and the Belgian third seed defeated Agnieszka Radwanska 6-3 7-6(4). This means that we have the top three seeds in the semis, and Li who is yet to lose a match this season.

Zvonareva reached her third successive Grand Slam semifinal, in straight sets, but not before Kvitova, who had upset Samantha Stosur and Flavia Pennetta earlier in the tournement, went from 0-4 to 2-4 in the first set, and more importantly, from 0-3 to 4-3 in the second. Clijsters also advanced in straight sets against Radwanska, who was playing her first tournament in three months.

The semifinal pair of Zvonareva and Clijsters has met 9 times in their careers. Clijsters won their first five meetings, until 2006, but from then on Zvonareva won three of their four matches, all happening in 2010. (source: WTA Tour, photo: Upali)

Top seed Caroline Wozniacki advanced to the Australian Open semifinals by taking out Francesca Schiavone, thus ensuring to remain on top of the WTA rankings. After winning the longest match in women’s Grand Slam history, Schiavone still had fuel in her tank and took the first set from Wozniacki 6-3. The Italian even earned a lead in the second set, 3-1, but from then on Wozniacki won five games in a row and came through 3-6 6-3 6-3.

Wozniacki will next play ninth seed Li Na, player who defeated her in the fourth round last year and later made big news by reaching her first Grand Slam semifinal. This year Li managed to repeat the feat, by beating Andrea Petkovic 6-2 6-4 in the quarters, and in quite a fashion – Li hasn't dropped more than six games in any of her matches at the Australian Open. Moreover, she came to the tournament without losing a match this season, which included a Sydney title earned by a victory over Kim Clijsters in the final.

Besides last year's Australian Open win over Wozniacki, Li has another 2010 victory over the Dane, again in Australia, in Sydney. Wozniacki defeated Li once, in Luxembourg, three years ago. Therefore, Li leads their head-to-head record 2-1. (photo: Tidalist)

Second seed Vera Zvonareva is two matches away from reaching her third successive Grand Slam final (after Wimbledon and US Open last year), as she edged the first set and cruised through the second for a 6-4 6-1 victory over unseeded Iveta Benesova.

Zvonareva’s quarterfinal opponent will be Wimbledon 2010 surprise semifinalist Petra Kvitova, who took out fifth seed Samantha Stosur in the third round and on Monday she fought back to beat Flavia Pennetta, seed No.22, 3-6 6-3 6-3.

After wasting six break opportunities, Kim Clijsters was pushed to tiebreak by unseeded Ekaterina Makarova in the first set. The third-seeded Clijsters won the tiebreak 7-3, and soon after the whole match 7-6(3) 6-2.

Quarterfinal pairs (seeding is in brackets):

(1) Caroline Wozniacki vs. (6) Francesca Schiavone
(30) Andrea Petkovic vs. (9) Li Na
(12) Agnieszka Radwanska vs. (3) Kim Clijsters
(25) Petra Kvitova vs. (2) Vera Zvonareva

(photo: © Neal Trousdale)

A mysterious situation involving a member of Aravane Rezai’s family is hitting the WTA. There are no specific details, but the WTA banned someone from Rezai’s family from attending all WTA events, indefinitely, because of a "serious safety matter" and because they value the health and well-being of tennis players as top priority.

The WTA doesn’t want to reveal what exactly happened and who the person in question is. But, we do know that Australian police are investigating the alleged incident involving a 23-year-old woman on January 18. Pretty intriguing story.

Rezai was defeated in the first round of the Australian Open by Barbora Zahlavova Strycova, and according to her website, she withdrew from the women's doubles "for personal reasons". (source: Reuters, photo: © Neal Trousdale)