Li hangs with top 3 in Aussie semis

It isn't that often that the world's top three ranked women reach the semifinals of a Grand Slam. But it's happened for the second straight major at the Aussie Open, with Caroline Wozniacki, Vera Zvonareva and Kim Clijsters getting through the final in Melbourne. They are joined by China's top player, Li Na, the world No. 11 who has looked just as good as any of them at this tournament.

All of them have the talent to win the event, which will produce a first-time winner, and all have reason to fold: the 28-year-old Li because of the pressure on her to become China's first Grand Slam winner is immense; Wozniacki, because she has to prove that she's a legitimate No. 1 by winning her first Slam; Zvonareva because she has to show that she's as mentally tough as some of Russia's previous champions and come through to her first Slam title; and Clijsters, because she has to show that she can win a major off her favored fast U.S. Open hard courts.

Both semifinals match-ups are fascinating: Wozniacki will face Li, who beat her in two matches last year, both which occurred Down Under -- a three-set win in Sydney and a straight-sets win in the third round of the 2010 Aussie Open.

Zvonareva will go up against Clijsters, a match-up where one — No. 3 Clijsters — has the strongest body and is the most all-around player of any woman in the semis, and the other — No. 2 Zvonareva — has reached the semis of the last three majors and has developed a nearly airtight game.

The Belgian won their first five matches before she briefly retired to get married and have a child, but the Russian took three out of their four contests last year, including a clean three-set win in last year's Wimbledon quarters, another win in the quarterfinals in Montreal and another in the round robin phase of the year-end WTA Championships. However, Clijsters won their most important meeting, a 6-2, 6-1 whitewash in the U.S. Open final.

"I have to make sure I prepare myself well for the match, don't over-train, stay fresh, stay focused on that match," Zvonareva said. "I definitely will try to take positives from those matches when I beat her and try to think over again, 'OK, why I lost so quickly in the final?' Just try to avoid those moments."

That's the question with Zvonareva, who out-thought the wildly talented but still raw Petra Kvitova 6-2, 6-4 in the quarters. Can she stay as focused as she did at Wimbledon against Clijsters, who has won more matches on outdoor hard courts? There is no doubt that the Russian has the legs, the mind and the groundstrokes to stay with her, but if Clijsters heads into one of her wind sprinting rolls where she is clipping every short ball for winners crosscourt and stepping two feet inside the baseline and nearly half-volleying rocket winners, she will stride away the winner.

Zvonareva has plenty of variety and has shown herself to be a real battler over the past eight months, but until she steps up and wins a major, there will always be a question as to whether she has the mental makeup of fellow Russians Maria Sharapova and Svetlana Kuznetsova, who have both won majors.

Clijsters wasn't particularly pleased with how her body felt in her 6-3, 7-6 (4) victory over Agnieszka Radwanska, but she responded well for the most part to the Pole's smooth shotmaking. She believes she'll have to step up in every department against Zvonareva, but is pleased that she hasn't played her best yet, which could be a sign of great things to come. She's 23 of her last 26 matches on outdoor hardcourts and knows that the Russian is going to give her a lot of the same type of hard, deep balls and try to force errors out of her. Zvonareva is capable of closing at the net and mixing it up, but it's more likely she'll go straight at Clijsters. It's up to the Belgian to find away around her.

"It will be tough," Clijsters said. "There will be a lot of long rallies. But I've always enjoyed playing my matches against her. They've been physical and just kind of what you expect coming up for a semifinal."

Wozniacki has obviously matured since she feel to Li twice in January of 2010, but still has been winning matches much the same way: running, fighting, grinding her foes down with her steady play. Li is a more forceful player who can hit her spots with her serve, dictate off both wings, and go after her returns. When she's hot, she has the look of a top-five player and she's also much more experienced than the Dane. But even though she has spent far fewer years on tour, Wozniacki is a more consistent performer tournament in and tournament out and has a remarkable reserve for a player so young.

In the last round, she survived French Open champion Francesca Schiavone in three sets, partly because the Italian grew tired after her record marathon victory over Sveta Kuznetsova in the fourth round, but also because she was relentless. When she found herself down a set and 1-3 in the second set, Wozniacki step further in the court and eventually pulled off a 3-6, 6-2, 6-3 victory. Yes, she's still primarily a counter puncher, but she can dictate play with her hatchet of a two-handed backhand and has very quick reflexes. When told after her win that Schiavone hit 41 winners and she had only 14 (although Schiavone did commit 46 unforced errors and she only 15) and it was suggested to her that top players should be more aggressive, she nailed a verbal return down the line.

"I just want to know who won the match," Woznaciki said. "I think I did that, there is no question. I'm playing to win. If the opponent makes a hundred winners, it's too good. But if I still win the match, that's the most important thing in the end."

Whether she will be able to do that with Li is another question, because Li looks even better this year than she did in upsetting Venus Williams to reach the 2010 semis and isn't as error prone as the colorful yet erratic Schiavone is. She says she's in a happy place in her life, as her husband is back coaching her and they seem to get along fabulously. She's an independent sort whose father died when she was just 14 and was brought up by a strong mother. She quit tennis for two years in between 2002 and 2004 because she wasn't making progress and went to university, and when she returned to the tour, she eventually broke away from the authoritative Chinese tennis association to blaze her own path.

"No matter what you've achieved, everyone has high demands and high expectations of you," said Li, who made the quarterfinals of Wimbledon last year but was bundled out of the U.S. Open in the first round. "People will always think I should be doing better than what I'm doing now."

She is by no means a perfect athlete or player, getting injured frequently and at times having spotty results. She reached two quarterfinals at Wimbledon, one at the US Open and has won four titles, but only one, Sydney, is of the A-minus grade variety. But that title came almost two weeks ago and there, she bested three-time U.S. Open champion Clijsters in the finals. She's on a 10-match winning streak and has been striking the ball as well as anyone in the tournament. Many folks both in her country of 1.3 billion people and also around the grounds at Melbourne Park think she's the favorite against Wozniacki despite her ranking. And if she wins that match and plays for the title, the Sleeping Tennis Giant will surely awake.

"Wow, amazing for me, amazing for my team," she said of a title run. Maybe amazing for China tennis also."