Will No. 3 Ranking Inspire Li?

Written by: Bob Larson Tennis on 29th October 2013

Will No. 3 Ranking Inspire Li?

epa03927280 Na Li of China reacts during her final match against Seren Williams of the US for the WTA Championships tennis tournament in Istanbul, Turkey, 27 October 2013. EPA/TOLGA BOZOGLU |

Li Na became the first Asia player to reach the No. 3 year-end ranking, but didn’t have any energy left in the third set of her loss to Serena Williams.

She has made a number of changes this season, including installing serve and volley as portion of her game.

While Williams — who only lost four matches this season — will be the favorite heading into the Australian Open, Li’s coach, Carlos Rodriguez, likes how she plays in Melbourne. Li has reached the final there on two different occasions. However, he isn’t sure whether she can win the title.

“She is a good outsider, but it’s so difficult to predict,” he said. “The work is going to be done to try to improve different sectors of the court to give her more confidence, to go out there in the quarters and the semis and play big tennis. This is the challenge. Because Australian Open, you see last year, quarters, semis, you have to play big tennis. If not, you stay there.”

Rodriguez is proud of Li for taking the No. 3 spot, but isn’t sure how it will affect her mentally, Li said that it was her goal at the start of the year and was happy to achieve that, but she has had trouble dealing with high expectations

“I’d like to say yes, but I don’t really know how she will deal with it,” he said. “Source of pressure? Source of challenge for next year? Who knows? I have to work on that also, because I don’t know the interpretation and the feeling that she gets from this responsibility to be top-three in the world.

Interestingly, Li has never met or talked to Rodriguez’s former prize student, Justine Henin, whom he coached to seven Grand Slam events titles and the No. 1 ranking.

“They’re going to discuss more about me than about them,” he said with a laugh. “But the approach is completely different. I’m a completely different coach with her, the approach, than with Justine. That probably would be very helpful for Li Na, but at the same time the approach, the culture is so different. The way that they see tennis and see life. That could be a very good mix in terms of personalities and exchange, but I’m not sure how much it could help her.”

Topics: 10sballs, Carlos Rodriguez, Li Na, Serena Williams, Sports, Tennis, Tennis News