Final chance for Li

Li Na has another chance to win her first title of the season in Cincinnati after seeing off an injured Venus Williams in the semi-finals of the Western & Southern Open.

China's Li, who has lost finals in Sydney, Rome and Montreal this year, prevailed 7-5 3-6 6-1 and will play Germany's Angelique Kerber for the title on Sunday.

Her cause was aided by a back strain that Williams, appearing of her first semi-final of the year, sustained shortly before the start of the match.

"Right now I don't know why my back hurts, I just know it hurts. After this I'm going to get an evaluation and see what exactly is happening."
Venus Williams Quotes of the week

The American's serve hovered around the 75mph mark and has little time to recover before the US Open starts at Flushing Meadows on August 27.

'Oh no'

"Just in my warm-up it was bothering me. I was like 'Oh, no'. I tried to fix it between the warm-up and the match, but it didn't work," Williams said.

"Right now I don't know why my back hurts, I just know it hurts. After this I'm going to get an evaluation and see what exactly is happening."

Williams double faulted to hand her opponent a 6-5 lead in the opening set, ninth seed Li then serving it out without alarm.

After receiving an on-court massage to her back, Williams won five consecutive games en route to taking the second set 6-3.

But she ran out of steam in the decider, winning just one game as Li raced across the winning line.

"It's amazing this year, because in the last two years I hardly got a point in North America," said Li, the 2011 French Open champion.

"So I'm happy I can be in the final again."

Errors

Fifth seed Kerber will also be appearing in her fourth final of the season after battling her way to a 6-1 2-6 6-4 win over Czech Petra Kvitova.

Kvitova surrendered the opening set amid a string of errors but relied on her powerful serve to turn things around in the second and force a decider.

But Kerber raced into a 5-2 lead and served out for victory at the second time of asking, applying the finishing touch after one hour and 53 minutes on court.

"I made a lot mistakes, and I knew that if I would play my solid game and go for the volleys I could win but I made a lot mistakes, that was the problem," said fourth seed Kvitova.

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