Li Na confident of a good show in Rogers Cup

Li Na

Toronto - China’s Grand Slam singles champion Li Na, who’s vying for the Rogers Cup tennis title, saying she is ‘prepared’ and ‘confident’ with her game.

World No.5 Li, who won the first grand slam tennis singles title for Asia back at the 2011 French Open, will be representing China, reports Xinhua.

Li, who was the runner-up at last year’s tournament in Montreal, prepares for her first match Wednesday against Russia’s Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.

“Last year I got a lot of confidence after I come to the final, but you know this year is already one year past, so but yeah, I will focus on every match,” she stressed.

Fourth seed Li may be facing No.8 seed Angelique Kerber of Germany in the quarterfinal round, and either No.6 seed Petra Kvitova of Czech Republic or No.9 seed Caroline Wozniacki in the semi-finals. Li won’t be facing the world’s No.1 player Serena Williams until the final round.

An aggressive baseline player, Li has been following her coach Carlos Rodriguez’s advice to move off the baseline and close the net. Her change in strategy was noticeable at this year’s Wimbledon when she came to the net 71 times in the quarter-finals to earn 48 points. While she was ousted in the quarterfinals, but Li believes the new strategy worked for her, and says she will continue testing it out in Toronto.

“This is the new plan for me, because I try already in Wimbledon, so I was feeling pretty good,” she said. “That’s why I will continue for end of the season.”

Besides having her strategy down, Li says a little downtime after Wimbledon has helped recharge her both mentally and physically.

“I was feeling pretty good, because after Wimbledon, I was taking one half week off,” said Li. “Now the body and mind, pretty free, so I think I’m ready for this tournament.”