Carlos Rodriguez Prepared Li Na For The Heat

Written by: Staff on 7th January 2013

Carlos Rodriguez Prepared Li Na For The Heat

epa03526718 Li Na of China plays Christina McHale of the United States in the second round of the International Sydney Tennis in Sydney, Australia, 07 January 2013. EPA/TRACEY NEARMY AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND OUT |

The top three ranked WTA players in Victoria Azarenka, Maria Sharapova and Serena Williams are skipping Sydney this week so they can have a week of preparation ahead of the Australian Open.

But not world No. 7 Li Na of China, who played and won the Shenzhen Longgang Gemdale Open last week and is the fourth seed in Sydney this week.

With the intense and notable coach Carlos Rodriguez in the corner, 2011 Australian Open finalist Li has been putting her nose to the grindstone and feels prepared to three straight events.

“I think I’m strong enough for four weeks, no problem,” Chinas top player said. “After Melbourne I will take two weeks to start training again. I played in China, so I have to [get] used to the heat. I couldn’t come straightaway to Melbourne. I need some matches in the heat conditions, otherwise I don’t know what I can do in Melbourne.”

What Li did in the off-season was leave her husband, sometimes coach and hitting partner Jiang Shan at home and travel to Germany, where Rodriguez put her through the ringer. The former coach of Justine Henin is known for being a strategic genius, but Henin did not get to No. 1 or win seven majors by being lazy. He understands the value of being in tip-top shape and he made darn sure that Li would be well prepared for the 2013 season.

“I was two weeks in Germany, three weeks with him in Beijing, so changed a lot technique, like serve, like forehand. Also I would like to say he give me a lot of tough time when I was training with him. First three days my husband didn’t come with me. After three days I was calling him, I say, ‘Please come with me. I was thinking already for retire after three days, because he’s really, really tough.’ For our team, the goal is maybe we can do much, much better this year than last year. So yeah, his training is hard. I think it’s not bad. I had very good beginning of the year.”

Rodriguez only began coaching Li last August. He runs an academy in China that is partially being backed by the Chinese Tennis Association. The CTA allows the independent minded Li to pick her own coaches now, but they were said to have approved his work with the 2011 Roland Garros champion.

Clearly, he is invested in her success, for if he manages to get her back into the top 5 or to win another major, his reputation in China would grow by leaps and bounds and the future of his academy would be secured, at least in the short and medium terms.

Even though Rodriguez and Li have only known each other for six months, she already has tremendous faith in him, so much so that she allowed him to make changes to two of her major on court weapons.

“If I didn’t trust him I would never sign the contract with him to continue,” she said. “Also, before we training he tell me, If you want one more step or want to be even more better, you have to change something. I agrees, because if I didn’t change maybe I still can stay like top 10, 20, but I couldn’t go up, So I was happy I can change in the mind. Beginning it was tough, because [I played the same for] 10 years, 20 years already. It’s very tough to change. But I was happy I could trust him to change something in practice.”

©Daily Tennis News Wire

Topics: Australian tennis news, China Tennis news, Chinese tennis news, Li Na, Maria Sharapova, Serena Williams, Shenzhen tennis news, Victoria Azarenka, Wta