Russia's US Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova (R) laughs as she walks past China's Li Na during the second round of the China Open tennis tournament in Beijing September 23, 2004. (Reuters)

Li Na came close to notching up her best-ever career win, but fell just short.

Holding a match point two times at 5-3 in the third set, China's former best could not capitalize on her advantage and lost to newly-crowned US Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova 3-6, 7-6, 6-7 at the China Open on Thursday.

"I was thinking too much at my match points. I wanted to win, which made me conservative. It was a pity that I was not aggressive enough at that moment," said Li.

But the 22-year-old, who returned to action after three years of retirement, was satisfied with her performance, saying if 100 is a perfect assessment for the match, she scored 95, the five going the same way as the match points.

She got the biggest cheers when she bowed to spectators on Beijing Tennis Centre.

Kuznetsova started well and broke Li in the second game on her way to taking out an easy first set. The second set looked set to follow the first as Li was broken in the third game with her opponent up 5-4 with the serve.

Li replied strongly to the threat and broke the US Open winner and then again in the 12th game to make it 6-6. The Russian trailed all the way in the tiebreaker losing 6-8.

Kuznetsova continued to struggle in the third set, allowing Li to break her in the seventh game and fell behind 4-5 with Li serving. But Li missed two match points from unforced errors, handing her opponent an opportunity to rally.

"I'm still thinking of the match right now. It is the toughest match I have played this year," said 19-year-old Kuznetsova. "I did not play well. She played unbelievably and it's like playing against a top five player," she said. "But I am so happy to win the match. I am winning and I did not want to lose."

The second seed next plays sixth seed Gisela Dulko of Argentina.

Fourth seed Vera Zvonareva and fifth seed Nadia Petrova joined Kuznetsova in the quarter-finals, meaning Russian women will take up half of the eight spots.

Qualifier Vera Douchevina was the only Russian to crash out as she fell 6-1, 6-3 to seventh seed Jelena Jankovic of Serbia and Montenegro, who plays a quarter-final against Sharapova.

Their last match was in the US Open second round where Jankovic pushed Sharapova to three sets before falling.

In the doubles, top seeds Nicole Pratt of Australia and Tamarina Tanasugarn of Thailand advanced to the semi-final stage after seeing off Garrigues and Flavia Pennetta of Italy 6-2, 6-2.

Gagliardi and Dinara Safina of Russia later joined them, shocking Shinobu Asagoe and Rika Fujiwara of Japan 6-3, 6-4.

The Japanese duo were the surprising first-round winners against third seeds Sharapova and Zvonareva.

(Agencies)

notch up: to achieve（完成）

match point: （赛点）