WTA Rome Saturday Preview

Na Li vs. Samantha Stosur

Na Li and Samantha Stosur will meet on Saturday with a spot in Sunday's final on the line from WTA Rome. The semifinals for the 2011 edition of the Premier Mandatory event in Rome will continue on Saturday and in one match Samantha Stosur of Australia will face Na Li of China.

Stosur has every reason to be feeling confident ahead of the clash as she avenged her French Open loss to Francesca Schiavone on Friday with a convincing 6-2, 6-4 win. The world number seven served well against the Italian, who had the support of the home crowd, and if the Aussie continues her strong play she should be into the final in Rome. Na Li of China is currently the world number six although she has never won a WTA clay court title before. She is playing well as she made the semifinals in Madrid last week but she was fortunate to have an inexperienced opponent in Greta Arn in the quarters in Rome as Arn is a player whose name is not usually associated with being this deep into a Premier Mandatory event.

Stosur defeated Li on clay at Stuttgart 2010 and she currently has an undefeated record at 2-0 against China's top star. Stosur should be able to survive this test and that would give her a chance at the championship against either Caroline Wozniacki or Maria Sharapova.

Caroline Wozniacki vs. Maria Sharapova

Caroline Wozniacki and Maria Sharapova, in what promises to be an intense match, are scheduled to meet in the semifinals of the Premier Mandatory event in Rome.
WTA Rome has a premier match-up scheduled for Saturday as world number one Caroline Wozniacki faces fan-favorite and former world number one Maria Sharapova.

Wozniacki faced another former world number one in the quarterfinals on Friday as Jelena Jankovic provided a test that the Dane survived 6-3, 1-6, 6-3 to reach the last four in Rome. That marked Wozniacki's third straight victory over the Serb and it gives Wozniacki an excellent chance to win the Rome title.
Sharapova struggled in her quarter-final on Friday, but survived as Victoria Azarenka was forced to retire due to an injury to her right elbow. Azarenka had been leading the match 6-4, 0-3 and the result means that Sharapova has now made the semi-finals of this event in her last three attempts.

Sharapova, just due to the fact that she was trailing so badly at the time of Azarenka's retirement, has to be considered to be pretty lucky to be in the tournament at this point. The Russian, who probably would have gone out in the quarters if not for the injury, can't be viewed as having a great chance against Wozniacki entering the semis.
Wozniacki has a 2-2 head to head record against Sharapova and the Dane has won the last two matches played between them. Sharapova did win their last clay court match between the two but Wozniacki has had a great season so far, and enters this match as the favourite.