Saturday, May 13 2006 10:29 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Berlin: Li Na scored one of the finest wins ever by a Chinese tennis player when she saved three match points to bring down world number nine Patty Schnyder of Switzerland in the German Open quarter-finals on Friday.

Li's sensational 2-6, 7-6 (7/3), 7-6 (7/1) win was achieved from love-forty down at 5-6 in the second set and from 2-5 down in the final set, carrying her to the first Tier One tournament semi-final of her career. It was a long tough, battle and all the more surprising for following a tournament, the Estoril Open, in which she had to retire in the final.

Li had no stamina problems on this occasion, and also found that her double-handed backhand was well suited to containing and counter-attacking against her left-handed opponent's cross-court forehand.

Asked how she had achieved such an upset, the 24-year-old from Wuhan in Hubai province, said, "I don't know."

But after agreeing that it was the best win of her career against an opponent who had won both of their previous two meetings, she said, "This time I had a good philosophy - more positive and more calm."

Her cramps in Estoril had partly been caused because she had been nervous, she said, but this time she was nervous only for the first three games.

On the three match points she had no nerves, adding that, "I didn't think about anything on those points. I just concentrated on my serve."

Despite this, her success owed something to Schnyder's apparently casual attitude and increasingly mistake-prone game.

When she went off the boil, she never blew hot again, while Li became more focussed in her cocoon of concentration. Schnyder collapsed completely in the final tie-break, losing it 7-1, serving a double fault to go match point down and immedialtely losing it when she put a limp return of serve wide.

Li next plays Nadia Petrova, arguably the hottest player on the 2006 WTA Tour, who made an outstanding comeback to reach her sixth semi-final of the year.

The second-seeded Russian was a set and 0-3 down in the second set against her compatriot Dinara Safina before recovering to win a long drawn out and tiring two-hour 18-minute encounter by 3-6, 6-4, 6-3.