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Li: Perception of Chinese players has altered
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People look at Chinese players differently since Li Na won two grand slam titles, the new Australian Open champion claims.
Li, who is seeded to win the Qatar Open title this week, is as amazed as anyone at the transformation in attitudes which has taken place recently.
“I remember when I was young that people would say ‘she’s a Chinese player, she’s easy’,” said Li, who plays her first match since her Melbourne triumph today.
“That’s not like now. Now people know exactly (who they are playing). And they know who she is and what she does and how she works.
“So I feel there are no secrets on the tour now. It’s both good and bad,” the player from Wuhan concluded, perhaps partially concerned that rivals will be able to better work out ways of dealing with her assertive ball striking.
But while Li has rather mixed feelings about the attention she gets from other players, she enjoys a great deal more the acclaim she receives from spectators. “I really enjoyed that in Melbourne,” she said. “It’s my favorite grand slam — the feeling is very friendly. More and more people know who I am.”
However, Li is not the only Chinese player likely to gain extra attention this week, even though she will end it by climbing one place to a career-high world No. 2.
That is because she will likely be denied the opportunity to become the first Chinese player ever to become a world No. 1 by Peng Shuai who needs only to win one match with her Chinese Taipei partner Hsieh Su-wei to top the rankings in the women’s doubles.
Peng and Hsieh, who are seeded second, will play Irina Buryachok of Ukraine and Vitalia Diatchenko of Russia and hope to progress to a final with Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci, the current world No. 1 pair.
Li’s successes have helped galvanize Peng in singles as well as doubles, as she scored a good first-round win on Monday against Russian Nadia Petrova, a former champion.
It is Li’s relaxed confidence which is infectious. She attributes this partly to the help of Carlos Rodriguez, the Argentine coach who previously helped Belgium’s Justine Henin to seven grand slam singles titles.
“After I won the French Open (in 2011) I was so popular in China I didn’t know what to do,” Li says. “I felt I had to do so many things off court and I lost concentration on court.
“I was very tense. Now I am much more relaxed because Carlos has helped me alter my mind. Now I have better control of it. Now I have better focus.”
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