{"id":9165,"date":"2011-05-31T18:06:36","date_gmt":"2011-05-31T18:06:36","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2011-05-31T18:06:36","modified_gmt":"2011-05-31T18:06:36","slug":"Li-Heats-Up-After-Firing-Husband","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/?p=9165","title":{"rendered":"Li Heats Up After Firing Husband"},"content":{"rendered":"

In tennis, like in any profession, it\u2019s nice to hear a new voice every once in a while. Someone who can look at your strokes or your tactics anew, or boost your confidence with a few well-chosen words. But what to do when your old coach\u2014the one who\u2019s voice you\u2019re tired of hearing\u2014happens to be your husband? Such was the predicament for Li Na, who reached her first French Open semifinal Wednesday with a 7-5, 6-2 victory over Victoria Azarenka. At this year\u2019s Australian Open, Li became the first Chinese woman to play in a Grand Slam final. Since her moment in the spotlight, though, she has redefined the word slump. She didn\u2019t win a match in her next four tournaments, an uncommon run for a top player in women\u2019s tennis. After a second-round exit in Stuttgart, she decided it was time to make a coaching change. \u201cYou\u2019re feeling tired and you need a break,\u201d Li said. \u201cSo I said, OK, we make a deal. We try to find a coach and try to stand again. I think it was good. Now he is my hitting partner.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Li used to train with Thomas Hogstedt, who now coaches Maria Sharapova, her opponent in Thursday\u2019s semifinal. (Sharapova advanced Wednesday with a 6-0, 6-3 drubbing of Andrea Petkovic.) When Hogstedt departed at the end of last year, Li\u2019s husband, Jiang Shan, went from part-time coach to full-time, and it seemed to work quite well. Li played the tournament of her life and endeared herself to audiences the world over with her comments about married life after her matches. At one point she said she would love her husband even if he were \u201cfat and ugly.\u201d But love and tennis, it turns out, are not a perfect match. \u201cCoaching your wife, it\u2019s so difficult,\u201d Jiang said. \u201cWorking and life are different.\u201d<\/p>\n

Li found her new coach, Michael Mortensen, in an unexpected way: via Piotr Wozniacki, the father (and coach) of Caroline Wozniacki, the No. 1-ranked player in the world. Piotr is friends with Alex Stober, Li\u2019s physical trainer, and recommended Mortensen, the Danish Fed Cup captain, for a tryout. Mortensen joined Li in Madrid earlier this month and she reached the semifinals. It was first time she had won consecutive matches since the Australian Open. She made another semifinal the following week in Rome. They haven\u2019t decided to work full-time as of yet, but Mortensen is pleased with their start.<\/strong><\/p>\n

SOURCE<\/a>
\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In tennis, like in any profession, it\u2019s nice to hear a new voice every once in a while. Someone who<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1213,"featured_media":72448,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9165","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"magazineBlocksPostFeaturedMedia":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u-113x150.jpg","medium":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","medium_large":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","large":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","1536x1536":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","2048x2048":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","colormag-highlighted-post":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","colormag-featured-post-medium":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","colormag-featured-post-small":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u-113x90.jpg","colormag-featured-image":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","colormag-default-news":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u-113x150.jpg","colormag-featured-image-large":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","colormag-elementor-block-extra-large-thumbnail":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","colormag-elementor-grid-large-thumbnail":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","colormag-elementor-grid-small-thumbnail":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","colormag-elementor-grid-medium-large-thumbnail":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg"},"magazineBlocksPostAuthor":{"name":"Joshua","avatar":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/62ee23f8f40307578d1f284ecd823d77f32da8ea35541e7dbdafeb5da1a4e877?s=96&d=mm&r=g"},"magazineBlocksPostCommentsNumber":"0","magazineBlocksPostExcerpt":"In tennis, like in any profession, it\u2019s nice to hear a new voice every once in a while. Someone who","magazineBlocksPostCategories":[],"magazineBlocksPostViewCount":151,"magazineBlocksPostReadTime":3,"magazine_blocks_featured_image_url":{"full":["https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg",113,170,false],"medium":["https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg",113,170,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u-113x150.jpg",113,150,true]},"magazine_blocks_author":{"display_name":"Joshua","author_link":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/?author=1213"},"magazine_blocks_comment":0,"magazine_blocks_author_image":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/62ee23f8f40307578d1f284ecd823d77f32da8ea35541e7dbdafeb5da1a4e877?s=96&d=mm&r=g","magazine_blocks_category":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9165","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1213"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9165"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9165\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/72448"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}