Confident Li Na advances to Wimbledon's 3rd round

2014-06-26 10:23

By (Agencies)

Confident Li Na advances to Wimbledon's 3rd round

Li Na of China reacts after defeating Paula Kania of Poland in their women's singles tennis match at the Wimbledon Tennis Championships, in London, June 23, 2014. [Photo/Agencies]

LONDON - Li Na has always been willing to speak her mind, often with a dose of humor, whether she's criticizing her husband in a stadium interview for snoring or correcting a reporter for a question that might not have told the whole story.

Li was at it again Wednesday after her 6-2, 6-2 second-round win over Yvonne Meusburger at Wimbledon.

Her ever-improving English has helped, along with the respect that two Grand Slam titles - the 2011 French Open and this year's Australian Open - brings.

Asked what her favorite court surface was, grass or clay, she deadpanned: "Hard court."

After the laughter stopped, Li explained that "every court is interesting for me because I have to play every court. For us eight months a year we play on hard courts, but grass only one month."

Asked later whether she was concerned about the high number of unforced errors in her match (21) she replied: "But I hit a lot of winners (33), right?"

Then her explanation: "If you want to play more aggressive, this is the normal way," she said. "If you play defensive, of course you will make less mistakes, but you can have a lot of winners."

Li revealed she took a journalism course to help her better understand the people who sit across the press conference room from her. Earlier in her career, she frequently faced stinging criticism from the Chinese media in particular, and said she was often misquoted.

"I didn't have good communication with some journalists," Li said, adding that she hoped the courses might help her come up with better answers to often complex questions.

The next one wasn't so difficult: Would she like to become a journalist after she finishes playing tennis?

"You know, for my dream after retire, I want (to) be (a) housewife," she said.