IN MELBOURNE
PLAYERS don't always like to share goals. They hide them in their minds and look at them every day. They don't reveal them because this journey to them is personal. They don't share them because they don't want to be reminded they never reached them.
China's Li Na victorious at the Australian Open. PHOTO: Reuters
The girl at the press conference is not one of these people. She's not shy, she's just clear. Excellence in her mind has a number. The top 10. It's where she says she wants to be this year. The way she's going, it might not take long.
On Monday morning Li Na defeated the No. 4 seed and 2009 US Open finalist Caroline Wozniacki in straight sets, 6-4, 6-3. It means Li, who is No.17 in the world, is projected (depending on other results) to reach No.14 next week. No Chinese player has been beyond No.15.
Of course, any uncertainty about her rise in the rankings would be removed if she simply defeated her next opponent, Venus Williams. This is not a joke. In their only meeting, at the Beijing Olympics, guess who won? Not Williams.
Li wasn't thinking of this after her match. Not too much. She was busy dazzling the press.
China and tennis is not an unknown subject, for Zhang Jie and Li are old hands, but this surge together into the quarter-finals has been intriguing. The world, after all, is fascinated, and a bit fearing, of Chinese sport. It should be.
At the Beijing Olympics, it was not only how much China won, but in how many sports. In golf now, courses are sprouting everywhere; in tennis a Chinese boom is almost inevitable. Li is thus not just a tennis player but a charming path-breaker. She is an omen of what is to come.
Resolute with racket, Li was eloquent before the microphone. Queried about why the Chinese are doing well, she smiled: "Because we are working hard." Asked why she beat Wozniacki, she said: "Maybe I eat Chinese food."
Thereafter she expanded her answer, saying: "I was aggressive today. I know if I give her a chance, maybe she just beat me. So I was trying to hold on every point. I didn't want to give her chance."
A month from 28, the attractive Li, owner of a rose with a heart tattoo, wants to leave her mark behind on the game. This is her 11th year as a pro and, while time runs out, her ambition has not.
And so in a press conference of amusing answers, her perkiest was rightfully about her form. Asked if she was playing the best tennis of life, she said: "Hopefully not. I want more better." Against Venus she will have to be.
Rohit Brijnath is in Melbourne, reporting from the Australian Open.
Read more: