After Loss, Li Na Regrets Not Playing Matches on Grass Before Wimbledon

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After Loss, Li Na Regrets Not Playing Matches on Grass Before Wimbledon

After playing less than stellar tennis and falling to Barbora Zahlavova Strycova, 7-6(5), 7-6(5), Li Na tells the press that she regrets that she made the decision to skip a her customary Wimbledon tune-up at Eastbourne this season.

Li Na Stunned by Zahlavova Strycova on Day 5 at Wimbledon

“I think I made a wrong decision,” said a disappointed Li, who double-faulted on match point in the second-set tiebreaker after squandering a 5-4 lead. “I need to play some matches before the big one. It’s not only about technique, I think sometimes I didn’t know how to play the point, especially in the important moments. I think today I made a lot of mistakes.”

Li has only entered Wimbledon on one other occasion since 2005 without a grass-court warmup. On that occasion, Li also failed to get out of the second round at Wimbledon. In 2012 the Chinese No. 1 and three-time Wimbledon quarterfinalist was knocked out in round two by Sorana Cirstea in after forgoing a grass tune-up.

“I always play Eastbourne every year,” said Li. “But it also rains and is very windy, and I cannot practice on the grass court, so I made the decision, I say ‘oh, maybe I should change a little bit, come here [to Wimbledon] pretty early and try to play on the grass courts.’ ”

Li had difficulty stringing good points together against the 28-year-old Czech, and each time it looked like the second seed was going to hit her stride, the feisty Zahlavova Strycova had the perfect solutions to flummox Li’s game.To make matters worse, Li committed 37 unforced errors on the afternoon lacked decisiveness at the net, where she won only 16 of 34 points played.

Since winning her second Grand Slam title at the Australian Open this January, Li has had a horrible time at the European majors, going 1-2 with a first-round loss at Roland Garros before today’s Wimbledon fade out.

But the world No. 2 still holds out hope for success on the hard courts this summer.

“I’ve been doing good on hard courts, and now I’m back to hard courts again,” she said with a smile.

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