Li takes advantage of Paris weather, shops

PARIS: China's Li Na believes shopping and showers kept her French Open campaign firmly on track.

The 16th seed was struggling in her first round match against Germany's Sandra Kloesel trailing 5-3 when heavy rain brought a temporary halt to proceedings with her opponent about to serve for the first set.

But a lengthy stay in the locker room worked wonders for the 25-year-old from Wuhan who returned to Court Six to win 10 of the next 11 games to reach the second round.

"Actually, I don't like clay but I love Paris because of the shopping," said Li after her 7-6 (7/4), 6-0 win.

China's Li Na returns the ball to Germany's Sandra Kloesel during their match in the French Open tennis tournament at Roland Garros in Paris May 28, 2007."I just thought after the match I will go shopping. It's a good idea."

Li reached the third round here in 2006 before going on to become the first Chinese woman to make the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam when she reached the last eight at Wimbledon.

She thrived on hard courts earlier this year making the semifinals in Sydney and Indian Wells, but struggled on the European clay suffering an early exit in Berlin and quitting the Italian Open due to an abdominal injury.

National coach Jiang Hongwei accused her of lacking toughness.

But she showed plenty of grit on Monday taking just 24 minutes to race through the second set against the 87th-ranked German with three convincing service breaks.

Unlike the thousands of sodden fans who have been drenched by two days of torrential rain in the French capital, Li was more than happy to make the most of the rain break which came when she trailed 5-3 in the opener.

"Thank-you to the rain," said Li.

"I was able to calm down and think about the match and after we came back on court, I was more positive. In the locker room, I didn't think about the eight games.

"I told myself to be positive, don't think about win or lose. Just think black or white."

Twelve months ago, China had six women in the first round here.

China's Li Na undresses prior a match against German player Sandra Kloesel at the French Open tennis tournament at Roland Garros in Paris on Monday. Li won the match 7-6 (7/4), 6-0. Reuters

In 2007, there are just three with Zheng Jie, who lost to Swiss qualifier Timea Bacsinszky in the first round yesterday, and Sun Tiantian, who meets Slovakian qualifier Dominika Cibulkova, making up the numbers.

Chinese No 3 Zheng, who made the fourth round in 2005, has seen her world ranking slip from 27 last August to 49.

Like Li, her clay court season has been hampered by injury. Zheng has been hit by a right ankle problem and lost in the first round of the Italian and German Opens.

Missing from Paris is Chinese No 2 Peng Shuai, who would have been the 30th seed.

She sprained her left ankle against Serbia's Jelena Jankovic in Berlin and withdrew because of the injury.

China's players have another reason to do well here this year as Roland Garros marks the the start of the points ranking system which will decide places at the Beijing Olympics in 2008.