London: Second seed Kim Clijsters reached her second Wimbledon singles semi-final on Tuesday despite being given a scare by China's Li Na in her 6-4 7-5 victory.
The US Open champion looked to be in cruise control when she led by a set and a break against China's first grand slam quarter-finalist but was made to scrap all the way to set up an all-Belgian semi-final against Justine Henin-Hardenne.
Clijsters eventually ended Li's resistance on her third match point after the hard-hitting 27th seed had threatened to take the quarter-final into a deciding set.
"She's the type of player who likes to play aggressive tennis and I knew I had to do that as well," said the 23-year-old Clijsters.
"In the end I'm happy I pulled it back from a break down." Clijsters broke serve in the opening game but Li, who became the first Chinese player to win a WTA title in 2004, replied with a thumping backhand winner to break back for 2-2.
A volley error gave Clijsters an immediate chance to break again and this time the Belgian did not let her advantage slip as she served out the set.
The start of the second set was a replica of the first, only this time from leading 2-0 Clijsters suddenly found herself trailing 5-2 as Li's big serve and heavy groundstrokes allowed her to dominate the rallies.
The 24-year-old Li squandered a set point at 5-3 when she pummelled a backhand into the tramlines and Clijsters broke back with a thundering forehand winner.
Clijsters was at full stretch in the next game before levelling the set at 5-5, then seized on some Li errors to break again.
Li bravely saved two match points but on the third she punched a backhand long to the relief of Clijsters.
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