The Shenzhen Open 2014 championship match will feature two homegrown talents – defending champion Li Na and Peng Shuai. Both happens to be China’s top two players.
Fifth-seeded Peng advanced first to the final after a walkover semifinal win over Vania King. King pulled out prior to the match due to right thigh injury.
“The injury first started when I played Sara Errani,” King explained. “I felt some pain in my right leg, which is why I called the injury timeout. I was hoping it would feel better yesterday but it actually started feeling worse. The match was pretty fast so I was able to finish it, but right now it’s not doing so well.
“Originally I was going to play Sydney now, but because I did well here I couldn’t make it there for the qualifying rounds. So I’ll just go to Melbourne and rest up and I should be fine by Australian Open,” she added.
“It was a really difficult decision for me to pull out because I hate losing and not competing. I love being out on the court and I’m playing really well right now. But I just have to look out for my health.”
Top-seed and defending champion Li had a comfortable 6-1, 6-3 win over eighth-seed Annika Beck.
“Yesterday’s match was good preparation for me, and today was the best match of the week for me so far,” Li said after the match. “It’ll be a tough match tomorrow. We’re quite familiar with each other and have improved a lot over the last year. But no matter what, I’m quite looking forward to the final.”
Li has a 5-1 head to head series lead over Peng.
