Understanding coach

Rodriguez had played a key part in the defusing of Li, by having her open up about her feelings rather than keep them bottled up.

"I wasn't really the kind of player to tell other people about my feelings," said Li. "But with Carlos, he reads me very well. He can tell if I'm feeling nervous at training for example.

"At the start I was like 'I'm fine, I'm fine', but now I tell him if I'm feeling nervous and he'll tell me how to deal with it, how to relax and how to ease the pressure.

"I think I'm more willing and able to let my team know how I'm feeling and what my thoughts are. It helps."

The partnership brought immediate dividends during last year's North American hardcourt season, with Li reaching the final in Montreal and winning at Cincinnati.

The Argentine coach has also put Li through a hellish off-season training regime ahead of the year's first grand slam and it showed when the Chinese pumped her 30-year-old legs to chase down everything Goerges could throw at her.

Li said she felt fitter compared to her fourth-round run last year and laughs off talk of retirement at Melbourne Park where 42-year-old Japanese Kimiko Date-Krumm stunned her colleagues by making it to the third round.

Chinese media reported that a government official in Hubei offered her a plum post in her home province's tennis administration, but Li has no grand ambitions after she puts down her racket.

"If I retire, I will choose to be a housewife. I think in love, two people have to make sacrifices," she said. "Jiang Shan has never placed any demands on me, and has always travelled with me around the world and followed me on the tour.

"So I hope that after I retire I can sacrifice my life to take care of him and raise a family... It'll be up to him where we settle down. If he doesn't want to settle down in (home-town) Wuhan, then I won't be staying there without him."