Tried to cool down on court: Li Na

Melbourne - China’s top women’s tennis player Li Na Thursday said after winning her semifinal encounter at the Australian Open that she has learned to cool down on court.

“It’s like Hollywood, you know. You don’t have to show your opponent what you are thinking,” Li said at the after-match press conference here at the Rod Laver Arena, reports Xinhua.

The sixth seed beat second-seeded Maria Sharapova 6-2, 6-2 in the first women’s semifinal match. The victory sent Li to her second final at the Australian Open and also her third Grand Slam final. Li was runner-up at the Australian Open and winner of the French Open in 2011.

Instead of labelling the match as her best against Sharapova like the Russian said at her after-match press conference, Li would rather call it the one in which she had best controlled her temper.

“Before the start of the match, I felt nervous and I told coach Carlos (Rodriguez) about it. Carlos asked me why. He said: ‘you shouldn’t think too much. What you should do is to trust yourself and be cool’.”

Li said during the Australian Open, Rodriguez would give her a piece of paper every day as “homework”, which would ask her to be confident in herself. “He would tell me: ‘we all have faith in you. If you don’t have faith in yourself, it would be your biggest failure’.”

“Since cooperating with Carlos, I would dare to share some of my thoughts with him. He would think about solutions to my problems,” Li said. Li hired Rodriguez last August in place of her husband Jiang Shan as coach.

Li said the compared with her performance at the Australian Open and French Open in 2011, she is now more mature and knows how to better control her emotions and better adjust herself.