29.jpg (Photo : image.xinmin.cn)
Coming off her impressive win a few weeks ago in Shenzhen, Li Na has breezed through her first two matches at the Australian Open to advance to the third round. Next up for the No. 4 seed Li is Czech star Lucie Safarova.
Li's first two matches pitted her against the two youngest players in the tournament who are half her age. First up was 16-year old junior champ Ana Konjuh who Li easily dispatched in straight sets, dropping just two games.
In the second round Li faced another 16-year old, Belinda Bencic. Bencic like Konjuh was also a junior champ. The match was looking like a repeat of the first round for Li who won the first set in 22 minutes, but Bencic put up a fight in the second set battling to a tiebreaker. Li was eventually able to pull ahead and win the match 7-6(5).
Li commended the younger players for their gameplay. On Bencic, Li said, "she won the juniors, so she has experience on big courts." When asked by reporters what she thought about the age difference between herself and her younger opponents, Li responded that she didn't feel old and that she was the youngest in the room. Li went onto to say that while she is not sure when she will eventually retire from the sport, she'll play as long as she feels happy. "I still love this sport," she said.
When asked about the heat, which has been the source of many complaints as well as a record number of early retirements in the first round, Li, who was born and raised in Wuhan, also known as one of "China's Furnaces," answered, "it's warm, but it's OK." Li Na, who won the French Open in 2011 and was runner up in Melbourne in 2011 and 2013, is ranked No. 4 in the world.
Li's country-mate Zheng Jie also advanced into the third round with a three set win over American Madison Keys.
