Li Na of China won her first Grand Slam title today by beating Francesca Schiavone of Italy 6-4, 7-6 in the Roland Garros final.

Li Na wins Roland Garros 2011 / Photo by Matthew Stockman/Getty Images

Li Na played her usual game with relatively flat and fast groundstrokes which keep her opponents under pressure but she used three shot combinations that I think made the difference.

1.    Serve to the forehand of Francesca
Francesca perfers to play her forehand more than her backhand so most opponents keeps serving to her backhand.

She expects serves to backhand more and Li Na surprised her quite a few times with a serve to the forehand – especially on the advantage side. (more…)

What can we learn from the French Open finalists?

What did Rafael Nadal, Robin Soderling, Francesca Schiavone and Samantha Stosur play well, what was the mindset that produced the play we saw and what really made the difference between both winners and both losing finalists?

Let’s start first with both losing finalists and what we can learn from their losses…

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Although there are many smaller reasons why Roger Federer lost to Rafael Nadal in the recent French Open 2007 final, there is one major reason.

It can be found even in many of his interviews after the match and it’s included in the recent post 5 Things You Can Learn From Federer And Nadal.

So what is it? (more…)

Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer shared some very interesting thoughts in their interviews after the French Open final which Nadal won 3:1.

Here are top 5 things you can learn from each player – mental, tactical, technical or physical tips. (more…)

Ana Ivanovic and Justine Henin played a very one-sided final of the French Open yesterday. Justine was playing her usual high level tennis, but Ana did not play her best.

In her official interview after the match she spoke very honestly about her nerves and how they affected her.

Photo by FFT

She also mentioned some other very interesting parts of the mental game so let’s see what she learned for the future and what you can learn from her. (more…)

Katarina Srebotnik reached yet another final of the French Open, this time in women’s doubles! Unfortunately she and her partner Ai Sugiyama lost against Alicia Molik and Mara Santangelo 6-7, 4-6. (more…)

Katarina Srebotnik achieved another great success in the French Open mixed doubles this year when she reached the finals.

Her doubles partner Nenad Zimonjic is another Serbian with a fantastic run at Roland Garros joining Ana Ivanovic, Jelena Jankovic and Novak Djokovic’s great runs to the semifinals.

Katarina and Nenad won the mixed French Open title in 2006 and were favorites in this years’s match against Natalie Dechy from France and Andy Ram from Israel.

But it seemed that the crowd support for Natalie gave her that extra boost to turn the game in their favor.

Natalie went for risky shots towards the end of the match and it paid off.

In case you didn’t know, Katarina Srebotnik comes from Slovenia which is my home country too so I am very happy to add this little post to share her success.

Katarina is currently ranked 20th in singles and 9th in doubles.

Cestitke Katarina!

(which means “congratulations”…)

Serena Williams lost a highly anticipated match with Justine Henin in straight sets 4-6, 3-6. Most of us were expecting a 3 set battle especially with both women in good form.

But something happened to Serena and she wasn’t able to play her best tennis. The real cause of not being able to play your best is usually the mental part of the game.

Photo by FFT

Let’s see if we can find some of the reasons for her mental letdown in her comments after the match… (more…)

Roger Federer has tied John MnEnroe’s record streak of 11 consecutive straight-sets win in Grand Slams.

He won 7-6 (7-3), 6-4, 6-4 against Mikhail Youzhny of Russia and has reached quarter finals of the French Open.

Roger’s straight sets wins started in the Australian Open where he won his 10th Grand Slam title. (more…)

Novak Djokovic won a 5 set match today again a French player Patience who fought until the end with huge support from the home crowd.

Djokovic eventually prevailed but he learned some good mental toughness lessons. He also shared some of his thoughts about mental toughness and why he won… (more…)