After the AO, I was saying Li should just use lower events to prep for the slams, nothing else matters, she's a contender now, with two straight GS finals. The lower tournaments do not matter except for trying new things and adding to your game in actual match play but she doesn't need to fight for those anymore at her level. Li, intentionally or not, may have had the best preparation for the French in losing all those hard court first rounds and not over playing the harsh hc's, which I am very glad to see, and then a couple of good clay semi finals and then now suddenly like a rocket thru Kvitova, Aza and Maria, which nobody expected. I had thought Li might have been injured after AO but if she were, she seems to have recovered and is now incredibly match toughened after those last three matches.
Li vs Schiavone is 2-2; 3 meetings on hard with one on clay which is last years FO 2010 that Francesca won 4 and 2. Neither is an easy opponent for the other.
hmmmm, a happy dilemma here, I like both and would root for both, heart says Li, head says Francesca. I hope Li and Mortensen and Jiang are working furiously on a strategy for this match, however, if it were me, I'd say, well, against Sharapova you would mix it up and use a bit of variety to exploit her movement, but against Francesca, you aren't a Hingis, you cannot out finesse Schiavone on this court with the way she moves on clay and scrambles everything back and with her court craft and variety. In this match and on this your non home surface, you have nothing to lose, just play your A game, i.e : go for it, fire up all cylinders and bash like hell! Hit your opponent off the court. In other words, do what you do best! Its what you love doing anyway.
This kind of pure bashing by the way :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WO6mQJo8IhU, and if the conditions play like a hc, might just carry the day for Li.
