Not much history between Li , Schiavone

PARIS

The only real marker as one searches for a winner of the women's singles at the French Open is the match Francesca Schiavone and Li Na played here last year in the third round. The Italian won 6-4, 6-2. But don't get carried away by that.

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Li Na is a different player now — a late-blooming, all-court performer who comes into Saturday's duel with the considerable benefit of having already played a Grand Slam final, losing to Kim Clijsters at the Australian Open in January. Schiavone, meanwhile, goes into the match as defending champion. She is another late developer, having done nothing remotely as spectacular before or after last year's French Open win. Overall in career meetings, they have two wins each, Li was winner in Sydney in 2007; Schiavone in Beijing in 2008 and then Li in the fourth round of the US Open in 2009. All those matches were on hard courts before their meeting on clay.

But the spotlight really falls on Li for a number of reasons. For someone who first played on China's Fed Cup team in 1999, this bright, amusing 29-year-old has taken a long time to get her game to this level. A quarterfinal showing at Wimbledon in 2006 was really the first time she looked like she was making it in the big time and then a knee injury held her back. Now, with a new coach, she seems very much at ease at the sharp end of Grand Slam tennis and Michael Mortensen, who began working with her in April, thinks that she is developing the right mentality to handle big matches.

"I'm very glad she had the Australian Open final behind her," Mortensen told me. "It makes a big difference mentally and helps calm the nerves. She will go out with a very positive attitude."

Schiavone is always positive, one of life's natural optimists. She has a noisy back-up group and she laughs all the time. She also loves the fact that power does not dominate on clay.

"It's fantastic," she says. "I say from the start that it's a mix of everything. You have to be good physically, mentally, tactically. In one point on clay you can arrive to be in defense and then attack and then to the net and then again in defense. So you have to use everything that you are — the heart, the mind, the body."

It sounds exhausting and often, it is.

Li smiles easily, too and laughed when asked about feeling old at 29.

"I'm not old!" she replied. "Why do you think I'm old? I feel I'm still young. But I think more mature players are winning because we have more experience and you know what you should do on court."

Li is pleased that her success is helping popularize the sport in China, and although she broke away from the care of the Chinese Tennis Federation in 2008 she has nothing but good things to say about the support she received earlier.

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"They paid for coach, they paid for travel, they paid everything for me," she replied, turning serious. "And every sport is different. If you play volleyball, for instance, of course you couldn't play for yourself. But I think in tennis every player is different. No one should copy me because you have to find which way is best for yourself."

The chances are that more and more players will come flooding through in China now, partially as a result of Li's success but also because of an arrangement, set up by former French No. 1 Pierre Barthes, that will see the French Federation help China with various aspects of the game, including research of which type of clay will be best in different climates.

"The Chinese Ambassador in Paris, Kong Quan, has become a good friend of mine so we have been able to set up some co-operative arrangements," said Barthes.

Ambassador Kong will be taking a front row seat in the president's box again on Saturday, offering some counter support to the large number of Italians who will be making themselves heard as they try and carry their beloved Francesca to another French title.