Li: Chinese players will never give up

LONDON: Li Na praised Chinese players's fighting spirit as key to their assault on the world tennis scene.

The Chinese No 2 showed plenty of fighting spirit during her run at Wimbledon, as did her compatriots.

Though the 19th seed lost in the third round, she saved several match points along the way and battled to the very end.

Li's compatriot Peng Shuai also fought a thrilling match as she went out in the second round, salvaging several match points to keep the game alive.

"The Chinese always don't want to give up easily," Li told AFP. "The Chinese are always fighting every point. You can see it in all the players, it doesn't matter whether it's tennis or another sport - they never give up."

But don't just take it from her.

Polish 11th seed Agnieszka Radwanska had to play Li and Peng - and was given a tough time by both.

She beat Li 6-4, 7-5 in the third round after beating world No 36 Peng 6-2, 6-7 (7/6), 9-7 in the second round, in a match where Peng had looked well beaten at a set and 5-2 down.

"She's very good player, so I didn't expect it was going to be easy," said Radwanska.

"I knew that it was going to be tough match, especially against the Chinese it is always very difficult. So I'm very happy I finished in two sets.

"They're all very good. It's always very tough to play against them. They're so consistent, and you have to play 100 percent to win the match.

"It was actually very similar compared to the last match also, a couple of match points and I didn't use them.

"But she was playing unbelievable at that time. When I had match points, I didn't do anything to push the last point. But she was playing very good also in the end."

Chinese interest in the singles competitions is now over for the year, leaving Li reflecting on this year's Wimbledon.

"This year was very different to last year," she said.

"The court was much slower, much like a clay court. Before you could always see around the service line there was no grass any more after the second round. But right now it is still green."

(Agencies)