Istanbul, Oct 27: Victoria Azarenka became the first player to qualify for the semifinals of the WTA Championships on Thursday after a comfortable 6-2, 6-2 win over Li Na.
Azarenka followed her win over U.S. Open champion Sam Stosur with a victory by the same scoreline over Li, the French Open winner.
Li has a 1-1 record in the White Group after an opening win against Maria Sharapova, who pulled out of the tournament on Wednesday with an ankle injury.
A day after sealing the year-end No. 1 ranking, Caroline Wozniacki was hoping to put a loss to Vera Zvonareva behind her when she faced Petra Kvitova later Thursday.
The sixth-seeded Zvonareva was up against Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland in the last match of the day.
