Li Na battles through at French Open

By Xiang Bin

China.org.cn, May 25, 2011

Li Na of China celebrates during the first round match of women's singles against Barbora Zahlavova Strycova of Czech Republic in the French Open tennis tournament at the Roland Garros stadium in Paris May 24, 2011. Li won 2-1. (Xinhua/Xu Liang)

China's Li Na summed up her own stop-start performance in reaching the French Open second round by stating that anyone in the women's draw could win this year's tournament but the feat would still be tough.

Australian Open finalist Li Na began the second grand slam of the year with an unconvincing 6-3 6-7 6-3 win over Czech Barbora Zahlavova Strycova on the Roland Garros clay.

"I'm still happy I could win today. It was a tough match. I also had a little bit of cramp at the end of the match, but hopefully she couldn't see that," the sixth seed smiled to reporters on Tuesday.

"Right now I am feeling every player has a chance to win a grand slam. But, you know, I always like to say, 'easy to say; tough to do'."

The sixth-seeded Li, who became the first Chinese player to reach a Grand Slam final, made the semifinals at the clay-court warm-up tournaments in Madrid and Rome.

Li trailed 3-1 in the first set, then won 10 of the next 12 games to lead 5-2 in the second before her Czech opponent forced the tiebreaker. She led 4-0 in the third set.

Li has advanced to at least the quarterfinals at the other three Grand Slam tournaments, but her best result at Roland Garros is reaching the fourth round.