Top four seeds at the women's singles have rolled on to the semifinals of the
tennis tournament at the Doha Asian Games here on Monday.
 Top-ranked Li Na of China returns a
shot during women's singles tennis quaterfinals December 11,2006
at Asian Games in Doha.Li sailed into the semifinals.[Xinhua]
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Top seed Li Na of China, who revenged the team event wobble by ousting
nemesis Iroda Tulyaganova from Uzbekistan in the quarterfinals, will face fourth
seed Sania Mirza from India while second-seeded fellow Chinese Zheng Jie meets
Aiko Nakamura, who is seeded third at the December 4-14 tournament.
Li, who blushed in China's first team clash against Uzbekistan losing a 6-4,
1-6, 6-1 battle to Tulyaganova in second singles on December 5, rallied from one
set down to overcome defending champion Tulyaganova 3-6, 7-5 and 6-2.
"I played OK. I was a bit tired after playing too much tennis yesterday.
Iroda was using top spin a lot, and she was serving well. So after losing the
first set, I told myself I can do it and I hung on," said Li.
Tulyaganova reached a career-high No. 16 in 2002. A serious elbow injury kept
her sidelined for several years before she made a comeback earlier this year.
While Mirza enjoyed a comfortable win when she beat Suchanun Viratprasert
from Thailand 6-3, 6-2, the 33rd-ranked Zheng combated off some dicey moments
before coming back from one set down to score a 3-6, 6-4, 6-2 win over
17-year-old Chan Yung Jan from Chinese Taipei in two hours and 16 minutes.
"It was tough today. She is still young but played aggressive tennis. It was
important for me to win as I really wanted to be in the semifinals," said Zheng,
who had gleaned two singles WTA titles at Estoril, Portugal and Stockholm,
Sweden in 2006.
Her semifinal opponent Nakamura claimed an easy win over Thailand's Tamarine
Tanasugarn, who retired from their quarterfinal match due to an ankle injury.