N LI Chi 27 v K CLIJSTERS Bel 2

4-6 5-7

Wimbledon highlights: Women's quarter-finals

Interview: Belgium's Kim Clijsters

Feature: The rise of China's female tennis players

By Tom Fordyce

Second set:

Li 5-7 Clijsters
There it is - Clijsters is through to the semis, but not without a struggle. Li saves two match points and even has a break point, but Clijsters just about holds on. She'll now play Justine Henin-Hardenne for a place in the final - Belgium will come to a standstill. If you're planning a spot of quiet shopping in Brussels, Thursday afternoon could be the time.

Li 5-6 Clijsters
Clijsters strikes like a champion, forcing errors out of Li until she has a break point. Li saves one but is powerless to do anything about the second. Clijsters only has to hold serve now to be into the semi-finals.

Li 5-5 Clijsters
After Li shook her up like bad medicine (that's the last one of those, I promise), Clijsters is now back in the groove. She wins her third successive game to draw level.

Li 5-4 Clijsters
The answer is a a big fat no. Actually, to be fair to Li, Clijsters doesn't give her the chance - she belts two sensational forehands cross-court to save the set. If she is going to go down, she's going down in a blaze of glory.

Li 5-3 Clijsters
Respite for Clijsters. Needing desperately to stop the rot, she finds a semblence of her first-set form just in time. Can Li now hold her nerve to take the match into a third set?

Li 5-2 Clijsters
Five games in a row for Li - Clijsters can't buy a break at the moment. Li's resurection has been remarkable - she's now dominating. Bon Jovi fan Clijsters must now keep the faith. She was halfway there - now she's living on a prayer.

Li 4-2 Clijsters
The match has been turned on its head. Li breaks Clijsters again, and the Belgian looks baffled. She had the match in her pocket, but Li has snatched it away.

Li 3-2 Clijsters
Three games on the bounce for Li - she takes a mini-lead for the first time. Clijsters is also apparently a big fan of Starlight Express - she could do with some rollerskates of her own right now to help her chase down Li's raking groundstrokes.

Li 2-2 Clijsters
Great stuff from Li. Clijsters looked to be cruising two games ago, but now Li levels after breaking the number two seed in impressive fashion. If she can eliminate those errors, she's back in this.

Li 1-2 Clijsters
Li holds serve to stop the rot. Clijsters' father Leo - a former footballer who once won Belgium's player of the year award - watches from the stands. He has the same prominent nose as his daughter, although considerably less hair.

Li 0-2 Clijsters
Only six minutes gone in the second set, and Clijsters is already two games up. Li is still making too many unforced errors. On her WTA profile, she names her favourite colours as white and black - aren't they shades?

Li 0-1 Clijsters
Li came back from a set down against both Vaidisova and Kuznetsova, but she's making it pretty hard for herself here - she loses her first service game in rapid time. The only point she wins comes when Clijsters over-rules the line judge and calls Li's serve in - an act of sportsmanship that quite rightly gets her a warm round of applause from the crowd.

First set:

Li 4-6 Clijsters
Super-efficiency from Clijsters - she serves out the set to nose in front. Li has hit 13 unforced errors to Clijsters three - and it's that that is the biggest difference berween the two players at the moment.

"What you don't want to do is beat yourself. Li needs to dig deeper here." John McEnroe, BBC Sport summariser.

Li 4-5 Clijsters
Li stays in the set with the help of that crashing forehand again. She's found her feet on Centre Court now after looking a fraction overwhelmed earlier - but can she put Clijsters under enough pressure to get the all-important break back?

Li 3-5 Clijsters
Clijsters holds, but not without trouble - Li's forehand is a potent weapon. Further investigation reveals that Clijsters will have to settle for an evening performance if she wants to catch her favourite musical, We Will Rock You, today - it's not on on Tuesday afternoons.

Li 3-4 Clijsters
Li fights back from break point down to hold - just. Crown Prince Frederick of Denmark is in the VIP box. The chances of anyone recognising him on the streets of Wimbledon must be pretty slim. Perhaps that's why he comes - he's sick of the hassle he gets in Copenhagen.

Li 2-4 Clijsters
Clijsters decides enough is enough, and holds to love. A big fan of Bon Jovi, she generally likes to take in a West End musical when in London - with the form she showed in that game, she might yet be able to catch a matinee this afternoon.

Li 2-3 Clijsters
Neither player can hold serve here - it's Clijsters' turn to break back. The game hasn't quite settled down - each player is coming up with a mish-mash of the brilliant and the banal. No sign so far of Clijsters' fiance Brian Lynch, the American basketball player. He plays these days in Belgium - maybe the season is still in full swing over there.

Li 2-2 Clijsters
We've got a match on our hands here - Li storms into the Clijsters serve and takes the break back with a succession of fine, deep backhands. Clijsters looks a little surprised. She's not the only one.

Li 1-2 Clijsters
Good news for the crowd - Li gets her match going with a much better service match. There's a lot of power in her ground-strokes - you can see how she upset both Vaidisova and Kuznetsova in previous rounds.

Li 0-2 Clijsters
A chance for Li to break straight back - she battles hard for two break points, only for Clijsters to hustle her opportunity away. Kim - reportedly the nicest player on tour - has very much got her business face on today.

"Strong legs on both these players. I used to have pretty strong legs once - I used to wear tight shorts too. I still think we should go back to those shorts." John McEnroe, BBC Sport summariser.

Li 0-1 Clijsters
That wasn't the start Li wanted - Clijsters comes at her all guns blazing and breaks her before the Centre Court debutante knows what's hit her.