Given she won her first major title in Paris, a victory which made her an international sporting superstar and kicked off a Chinese tennis boom, you could assume Li Na’s name is forever connected with Roland Garros.
And it is, to some degree. But she has a stronger association with the Australian Open – the site of her greatest Grand Slam success.
Along with that success came a healthy dose of heartbreak, making her ultimate triumph in 2014 all the more sweet.
Looking at her career stats, it quickly becomes clear that Li’s game soared Down Under. Her Australian Open win-loss record of 34-8 – a winning percentage of 81 – is far superior to the other three majors. At Roland Garros, the Slam where she posted her second-best numbers, 20 wins and seven losses equalled a strike-rate of 74 per cent.
Li reached the semifinal stage or better four times at the AO, something she only did once in Paris and New York, and never at Wimbledon. Of her four career Grand Slam finals, three came at Rod Laver Arena.
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From 2010 to 2014 she built a stunning AO record of 27-4, the last of those 27 wins coming over Dominika Cibulkova in the 2014 final. At age 31 it was a long-awaited victory for the popular Li and would prove to be the last ever match she played at the tournament.
What a journey it was to get there.
Early success
Even in the tournament’s green Rebound Ace days, Li showed a fondness for playing in Melbourne.
At the Grand Slam of Asia-Pacific she made her major main-draw debut in 2005 and reached the third round. In 2006 she pushed defending champion Serena Williams to three sets in a pulsating first-round night match. In 2007, she reached the second week, extending three-time champion Martina Hingis to the limit and coming within a set of the quarterfinals.
She performed even better once the courts had turned blue.
In 2010, Li upset top-10 opponents Caroline Wozniacki and Venus Williams to reach her first Grand Slam semifinal, where eventual champion Serena Williams needed two tiebreaks to stop her.
A year later, she faced now-world No.1 Wozniacki again, staring down a match point in the semifinals at 6-3, 5-4, 40-30. She hit out courageously, and her power and aggression were rewarded.
That stunning 3-6 7-5 6-3 victory made her the first ever Chinese Grand Slam singles finalist, and it was the real beginning of Li Na-as-Australian-favourite, thanks to an iconic post-match interview.
First final
She lined up against Kim Clijsters in the AO 2011 final, a player she’d beaten just two weeks earlier in the Sydney International final.
Li appeared on track to repeat that result and cap a memorable fortnight in Melbourne, only to fade in three sets against the Belgian champion.
Nevertheless, she departed the tournament buoyantly. “After the match, back to the locker room, I make joke, tennis should only play one set,” she laughed after the 3-6 6-3 6-3 defeat. “I mean, of course, take positives. I think I play great tennis. She play better than me.”
She was less buoyant when she faced Clijsters 12 months later on the same court.
Li led their final rematch by a set and 6-2 in the second-set tiebreak, a bundle of match points she couldn’t convert.
Clijsters recovered to win in three, a loss which left Li devastated.
Second final
Thankfully, it didn’t seem to affect her when she returned for Australian Open 2013.
In devastating form, she ripped through the draw without losing a set, outplaying No.2 seed Maria Sharapova 6-2 6-2 in the semifinals.
In her second AO final, this time against Victoria Azarenka, she again led by a set before the Belarusian reeled her in during an emotional, dramatic decider.
Li required separate medical timeouts after twice falling heavily mid-point; the second of those produced another amusing moment in her collection of AO comedy highlights.
But she was left frustrated at letting slip another opportunity.
“I wish I can win the title because this my favourite Grand Slam. But the second time I was in the final, and twice I was lost the match,” she said.
“So of course I was feeling a little bit sad.”
Third time’s a charm
That sadness turned to tension at Australian Open 2014, when Li found herself, again, facing a match point, this time against Lucie Safarova in the third round.
But Li withstood the Czech’s inspired play, and the searing conditions, to win 1-6 7-6(2) 6-3.
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Surviving that scare – Safarova went for a winner on her match point, narrowly missing the line – seemed to loosen Li up. She beat Ekaterina Makarova 6-2 6-0, Flavia Pennetta 6-2 6-2 and Eugenie Bouchard 6-2 6-4 in her next three matches, advancing to her third AO final in the past four years.
She was anything but loose when faced Grand Slam final debutant Cibulkova.
The heavy favourite, Li became mired in a tense, scratchy opening set, during which she committed 25 unforced errors – 16 from her forehand alone. But once she won it, 7-3 in a tiebreak after 70 searching minutes, everything flowed.
The Chinese superstar raced to a 7-6(3) 6-0 victory, and the Rod Laver Arena crowd roared as she earned her second major title, and finally, her first at Melbourne Park.
“I make it. Not like last two times, always feeling one more step. But this time I really, so proud myself,” she said.
“Maybe you guys didn't know how hard I was working mentally to make this one.”