Tennis: Li Na surges into WTA final

ISTANBUL - Li Na continued her remarkable late-career surge when she reached the final of the WTA Championships, the tour's flagship season-ending tournament, for the first time on Saturday.

The 31-year-old did so with a convincing 6-4, 6-2 win over Petra Kvitova, the former Wimbledon champion from the Czech republic, who won the title two years ago.

Already the first Chinese singles player to win a Grand Slam, and now assured of a season-end highest-ever world ranking of at least number three, Li's latest victory was a reward for positive early groundstroke attacking from both wings and a ratio of unforced errors significantly lower than Kvitova's.