Confident Li ready for Rogers Cup
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E-mail Xinhua, August 6, 2013
China's Grand Slam winner Li Na, who's vying for the Rogers Cup title this week in the Canadian city of Toronto, says Monday she's 'prepared' and 'confident' with her game.
World No. 5-ranked Li, who won the first-ever grand slam tennis singles title for Asia back at the 2011 French Open, will be representing China along with world No. 54 ranked Zheng Jie at this year's Rogers Cup, the third oldest title in tennis after Wimbledon and the U.S. Open.
Zheng Jie was ousted in the first round against Germany's Mona Barthel Monday, but there's still hope for China as Li, who was the runner-up at last year's tournament in Montreal, prepares for her first match on Wednesday.
"Last year I got a lot of confidence after I come to the final, but you know this year is already one year past, so but yeah, I will focus on every match," she stressed.
According to the draw Saturday, fourth seed Li may be facing No. 8 seed Angelique Kerber of Germany in the quarterfinal round, and either No. 6 seed Petra Kvitova of Czech Republic or No. 9 seed Caroline Wozniacki in the semifinal round. Li won't be facing the world's No. 1 player Serena Williams until the final round.
An aggressive baseline player, Li has been following her coach Carlos Rodriguez's advice to move off the baseline and close the net. Her change in strategy was noticeable at this year's Wimbledon when she came to the net 71 times in the quarter-finals to earn 48 points. While she was ousted in the quarterfinals, but world No. 5-ranked Li believes the new strategy worked for her, and says she will continue testing it out in Toronto.
"This is the new plan for me, because I try already in Wimbledon, so I was feeling pretty good," she said. "That's why I will continue for end of the season."
Besides having her strategy down, Li says a little downtime after Wimbledon has helped recharge her both mentally and physically.
"I was feeling pretty good, because after Wimbledon, I was taking one half week off," said Li. "Now the body and mind, pretty free, so I think I'm ready for this tournament."
Li's first match will be against Russia's Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova on Wednesday.
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