Shortly after her sister Serena lost to Elena Dementieva, seventh seed Venus Williams was beaten by home favorite Li Na 7-5 7-5 in the quarterfinals of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.
“Venus was the best player in the world, she has just won Wimbledon,” said Li, the first Chinese player to enter the top 20 in the world rankings. “She has big serves that I can’t receive but I told myself to calm down and play my best.”
“Wow! You can’t see this kind of crowd anywhere else. It helped me and pushed me a lot. This is a present I give to the Beijing Olympic Games but I have no time to celebrate. I have more matches to go.”
In the semifinals world No.42 Li Na will face the winner of the match between Jelena Jankovic and Dinara Safina. The other semifinal is set and includes Russians Elena Dementieva and Vera Zvonareva.
