Li Na shocked in Indian Wells semis

Italian veteran Flavia Pennetta upset China’s Australian Open champion Li Na to join Poland’s Agnieszka Radwanska in the women’s final of the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells.

The 32-year-old Pennetta qualified for the biggest singles final of her career after a 7-6, 6-3 drubbing of an out-of-sorts Li.

Pennetta will face Radwanska in Sunday’s final after the Pole avenged her loss to Romania’s Simona Halep in Qatar last month with a 6-3 6-4 win on the Californian desert hardcourts.

Li beat Pennetta in the quarter-finals of the Australian Open in January but the Italian was too good this time.

“I think we played really good tennis tonight,” Pennetta said. “In Australia I didn’t have any chance against her, but tonight I played much better. I just fought and tried my best. Of course I’m happy.”

In the men’s draw, Serbia’s Novak Djokovic and American John Isner cruised into the last-four with straight-sets wins in the quarter-finals.

Djokovic hardly raised a sweat in the Californian desert as he eased to a 6-1, 6-3 victory over Frenchman Julien Benneteau, before the towering Isner rode his booming serve to a 7-6, 7-6 win over Latvia’s Ernests Gulbis.

Saturday’s other semi-final will be between Switzerland’s Roger Federer and Alexandr Dolgopolov of Ukraine, who won their quarter-finals on Thursday.