China's Li Na, a semifinalist at last year's Australian Open, looked in ominous form in her first competitive outing of 2011 at the Sydney International warm-up tournament yesterday.
Shrugging off the effects of jet lag, Li unleashed a flurry of her trademark powerful forehands to crush local Anastasia Rodionova 6-1, 6-2 in the first round of the US$618,000 tournament.
The 28-year-old, who has struggled with inconsistency throughout her career, said she was injury free and feeling even better than last year when she reached her first grand slam semifinal at Melbourne Park.
"Last year I had just had an operation, so I didn't know how I was going to go on the court," the world No. 11 told reporters. "Right now I am feeling more confident because I had winter training as well. I don't have any injuries. I can try 100 percent on court. I don't need to worry about there being maybe some problem with my knee or something."
When fully fit and at ease with herself, Li has proved that she has the measure of pretty much anyone in the world but that has not always been the case.
Along with other top players, she was released from the state system for last season and now chooses her own coach, recently settling on a return to her husband as her courtside and training mentor.
"I hope I can do even better this year," she said. "Right now my husband is the coach and husbands and wives are always fighting, on and off the court. This is a problem.
"On the court I have to listen to what he says, off court it's the opposite," she laughed.
Li agreed that beating world No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki and Venus Williams on her way to the last four in Melbourne last year had boosted her confidence but is cautious about raising expectations.
"I always try my best tennis on the court but I never put a lot of pressure on myself by saying 'I did well last year, maybe I should do much better this year," she said.
Li beat Venus Williams again in a Hong Kong exhibition and said the American was clearly still recovering from the injury that brought an early end to the seven-times grand slam champion's 2010 season.
"I know she's just come back after injury," said Li. "I think she had a knee problem so it was still like, if I hit the shots wide, you could still see that she did not 100 percent trust the knee."