Israel’s Shahar Peer lost in the semifinals of a tennis tournament in Australia.
Unseeded Belarusian teenager Victoria Azarenka, Peer’s doubles partner, defeated the fifth-seeded Peer, 6-4, 6-2, on Friday to reach the Mondial Australian Women’s Hardcourts final, a primer for the Australian Open, in Queensland.
Azarenka, the world’s 30th-ranked player, was beaten in the title match by another non-seed, Li Na of China.
Peer entered the tournament ranked 17th in the world.
Last year she advanced further than any Israeli in a Grand Slam event by reaching the quarterfinals of the Australian Open, which begins Jan. 14 in Melbourne.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.