Li Na eases into 3rd round at Rogers Cup
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E-mail China.org.cn, August 8, 2013
China's Li Na booked her place in round three of the Rogers Cup on Wednesday, beating Russia's Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in straight sets.
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Li Na during her match against Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova at Rexall Centre at York University on August 7, 2013 in Toronto. |
The 2011 French Open winner dominated her first rain-delayed match at Rogers Cup in Toronto, yielding a 6-1, 6-4 victory.
Both players were forced off early due to rain, but the fourth-seeded Li dominated after the delay as she took the opening set 6-1 in 30 minutes.
Pavlyuchenkova chatted with her coach immediately after the set, hoping to regain a more favourable position. She stepped up her game in the second set, putting up a fight against Li to win two out of three deuces.
But Li's swift and impressive volleys near the net takes Pavlyuchenkova by surprise and keeps her momentum going.
"I was feeling pretty good," said Li about the same strategy she employed at Wimbledon. "Today, I tried so many things, like not only stay in baseline, I tried to as much as I can come to the net, maybe today is first match, so I hope after I can do more."
Practicing two-and-a-half weeks with her coach Carlos Rodriguez on the new approach, Li said it's not easy to carry it out in a match.
"If in practice, if you make mistake, people just say who cares, it's just for practice, you have 10 or 20 more shots," explained Li. "But for the match, if you lose, sometimes I was feeling I can play very well in practice but come to the match where I got nervous or something, of course you can only use 60 to 80 per cent."
Li's opponent in the next round will be former champion Ana Ivanovic.
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