MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) After making history, Li Na turned on her cell phone and found 44 text messages.
Friends, family, players and sports officials were cheering her accomplishment at the Australian Open as a big step for her career and potentially a giant leap for China.
When Li walks onto Rod Laver Arena on Saturday for the championship match, it will be the first time a Chinese player will play in a Grand Slam singles final. A victory by Li could give a major boost to tennis in China, where the sport has long struggled for recognition alongside badminton and table tennis.
Li will have to overcome three-time U.S. Open champion Kim Clijsters, Belgium's 27-year-old mother of one who is playing with extra motivation because it may be her last Australian Open.
The 28-year-old Li said she was amused by the avalanche of messages on her phone. She was not fully aware of the reaction back home - she doesn't read news about herself because it might make her ``angry or sad.''
She took the rare step of breaking away from the Chinese state-run sports system in 2008 and hired her own coach. At the end of the 2010 season, she replaced former coach Thomas Hogstedt with her husband, Jiang Shan.
There's not much negative news now.
``Li Na makes history entering the Australian Open final'' read the front page of the Beijing News. Inside, the tabloid ran almost two pages of coverage on Li's semifinal upset over top-ranked Caroline Wozniacki.
Chinese tennis federation head Sun Jinfang was widely quoted as comparing Li to Houston Rockets center Yao Ming and Olympic champion hurdler Liu Xiang.
One of the text messages Li received came from China's tennis federation boss.
She said, 'Well done. (when) you come back, I pay (for) dinner.''' - to which Li replied:What? Only dinner?''
Another message came from her mother, who doesn't watch Li's matches because it makes her too nervous. But someone conveyed the good news. ``She sent me a text message. She said, 'Well done. I waiting for you in the home,''' Li said, laughing.
My best friend just called me. She was crying on the phone,'' said Li, pretending to cry and hyperventilate at the same time.I was like, 'OK, take it easy. What do you want to say? Just calm down.'''
The WTA expects Li's success to help spur the growth of tennis in China.
``Li Na's breakthrough performance will propel the popularity of women's tennis forward exponentially in the China market,'' WTA CEO Stacey Allaster said in an e-mail to The Associated Press.
DOUBLES DECIDED: Top-seeded Gisela Dulko and Flavia Pennetta rallied from a set and 4-1 down to beat Victoria Azarenka and Maria Kirilenko 2-6, 7-5, 6-1 Friday in the Australian Open women's doubles final.
It's their first major title as a team.
We were like in shock,'' Dulko said.In the changeover, we were like looking each other and saying, 'C'mon, we play less than an hour. We cannot finish the match playing less than an hour in the final.'
``We just tried to go for it, didn't try to wait for them, tried to play more aggressive. Because I think until this moment we couldn't find a good way to play, to win the match. So we just keep fighting and trying.''
Dulko and Pennetta, who hold the No. 1 and No. 2 rankings among doubles players, were already up a break at 3-1 when they broke again when Kirilenko netted a backhand. They held in their next service game, then broke Azaranka and Kirilenko again to close out the match.
Azarenka and Kirilenko were playing their first Grand Slam tournament together. Azarenka, of Belarus, formerly was a two-time Grand Slam finalist, including last year at Melbourne Park with Shahar Peer.
In mixed doubles Friday, Chan Yung-jan of Taiwan and Paul Hanley of Australia advanced to Sunday's mixed doubles final with a 2-6, 6-3, 11-9 (tiebreak) win over American Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Horia Tecau of Romania.
Chan and Hanley will play Katarina Srebotnik of Slovenia and Daniel Nestor of Canada, who beat Kirilenko and Nenad Zimonjic of Serbia 6-4, 7-5 in the other semifinal.
MISSED OPPORTUNITY: David Ferrer was in a strong position to win a hardcourt match over Andy Murray for the first time in the most important of places - the Australian Open semifinals. After winning the first set 6-4, Ferrer had a set point before losing badly in the second-set tiebreaker.
The first set and second set saw a lot of rallies,'' Ferrer said.I had my chance in the set point in the second set. But in the important moments, he served really well.''
Murray needed a fourth-set tiebreaker to win 4-6, 7-6 (2), 6-1, 7-6 (2).
I served well in both of them,'' Murray said of the tiebreakers.I got off to a good start, and that always makes a difference.''
Murray will try to end a near 75-year winless streak for British men in Grand Slam singles tournaments when he plays Novak Djokovic in the final on Sunday.
NEW TV CONTRACT: Eurosport has extended its broadcasting agreement with the Australian Open through 2017.
The network has provided Australian Open coverage for the past 15 years. It broadcasts to 56 countries and 121 million homes across Europe.
``This new agreement ensures that viewers in Europe will continue enjoying live extensive coverage of the Australian Open for many years to come,'' Tennis Australia chief executive Steve Wood said Friday.
Associated Press writers Rohan Sullivan in Melbourne, Australia, and Christopher Bodeen in Beijing contributed to this report.