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Chinese tennis megastar Li Na can’t be expected to remember the exact ages of all her opponents.
But the 31-year-old has no trouble recalling the few players in the top bracket who are older than her.
Even if it’s only one day older, as was the case with Italian Flavia Pennetta, the victim of a 6-2 6-2 demolition job by Li in the Australian Open quarter-finals on Tuesday.
“I only focus on who is older than me because on the tour, not so many players are older than me,” said Li, who is hardly showing her age, as evidenced by a current world ranking of four, just one spot below her career-high of three achieved late last year.
With world No.2 Victoria Azarenka the only other member of the top four still in contention at Melbourne Park, Li is well-placed to claim a second major title to go with her 2011 French Open crown.
She has been a constant presence in the second week at Melbourne Park in recent years, reaching the final in 2011 and 2013 and the semis on another two occasions.
She elicited a rare smile from coach Carlos Rodriguez after attempting to serve-volley on her first match point against Pennetta in a battle of two players who will both turn 32 late next month.
“I lost the point but at least I tried to do it,” she said.
“So I think he was happy about that.”
It was a far cry from Rodriguez’s angry demeanour after Li’s third-round clash with Czech Lucie Safarova, where she was lucky to escape with the victory after being down a match point.
“He didn’t tell me what I should do, he just asked me ‘What do you want? Why do you do this?'” said Li.
“After three questions I felt like he was already punching me down already.
“So I thought I should do something, otherwise he was so pissed.
“That’s why I started the next day to try to do what he said, because before I was always promising, I will try to do, I will try to do, but I never do.
“I think this is why my matches were turned around.”
It’s been some turnaround, with Li dropping just four games in each of her most recent two wins against Ekaterina Makarova and Pennetta to set up a semi-final clash with Canadian teenager Eugenie Bouchard, who is 12 years her junior.
HOW THE AUSTRALIANS FARED ON DAY NINE OF THE AUSTRALIAN OPEN AT MELBOURNE PARK (PREFIX DENOTES SEEDING):
Women’s doubles, quarter-finals:
Jarmila Gajdosova/Ajla Tomljanovic (Cro) lost to 4-Kveta Peschke (Cze)/Katarina Srebotnik (Slo) 7-5 4-6 6-4Girls’ singles, round 2:
Naiktha Bains bt Anastasia Shaulskaya (Rus) 6-2 6-2
Lizette Cabrera lost to 4-Elizaveta Kulichkova (Rus) 6-1 6-3
Destanee Aiava bt 14-Katrine Steffensen (USA) 5-7 6-2 6-1Boys’ singles, round 2:
Oliver Anderson lost to 7-Quentin Halys (Fra) 7-5 6-1
Akira Santillan lost to 11-Hyeon Chung (Kor) 6-1 6-1
Omar Jasika bt 13-Lucas Miedler (Aut) 6-1 6-4Girls’ doubles, round 2:
6-Sara Tomic/Kamonwan Buayam (Tha) lost to Freya Christie (GBR)/Jelena Ostapenko (Lat) 6-4 6-2
8-Priscilla Hon/Jil Belen Teichmann (Sui) bt Anastasia Shaulskaya (Rus)/Natalia Vikhlyantseva (Rus) 6-3 6-4
Lizette Cabrera/Zoe Hives bt 7-Michaela Gordon (USA)/Katrine Steffensen (USA) 6-1 6-2
Linda Huang/Kaylah McPhee lost to 2-Katie Boulter (GBR)/Ivana Jorovic (Srb) 2-6 6-1 10-4
Naiktha Bains/Olivia Tjandramulia bt 3-Xu Shilin (Chn)/You Xiao-Di (Chn) 6-7 (4-7) 6-3 12-10Boys’ doubles, round 2:
Oliver Anderson/Alexander Klintcharov (NZL) lost to 2-Andrey Rublev (Rus)/Alexander Zverev (Ger) 6-4 6-2
Daniel Guccione/Marc Polmans lost to 5-Lucas Miedler (Aut)/Bradley Mousley 7-6 (11-9) 7-6 (7-2)
7-Omar Jasika/Kamil Majchrzak (Pol) bt Martin Blasko (Svk)/Alex Molcan (Svk) 6-3 5-7 10-5
Akira Santillan/Ken Onishi (Jpn) lost to 1-Stefan Kozlov (USA)/Michael Mmoh (USA) 6-3 6-4
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