Melbourne: Chinese number one Li Na swept into the Australian Open second round today (Jan 17, 2007) and credited a new mental toughness in helping her zoom up the world rankings.

Seeded 19 here but ranked 16 in the world, Li is at the forefront of China s emergence as a credible tennis nation, breaking through with a quarter-final appearance at Wimbledon last year.

She easily dispatched Elena Bovina of Russia 6-4,6-3 in her delayed opening match here to set up a second round encounter with Lourdes Dominguez Lino of Spain.

Li said while her game was much the same as this time last year, her mental attitude had improved.

"It s in the mind," she said.

"My game is not so different from last year when I lost in the first round (to seven-times Grand Slam champion Serena Williams) but mentally I am much tougher. That is the difference," she said.

"I am feeling very good. I really didn t want to lose in the first round here. It is a Grand Slam and they are very important to me," she said.

Li has had an encouraging start to her season, reaching the semi-finals at the Sydney International last week before Kim Clijsters ended her run.

She has been working on her groundstrokes ahead of the new season and troubled Clijsters throughout the match, prompting the Belgian to praise her development as a player.

"She s definitely become a lot more consistent," Clijsters said.

"The last few times I played her I felt like she was a good player and she could really show some really good things, but she was never quite consistent enough to make it hard for the top players," she said.

"Something I think she has changed," she said.

Li is now working with a new coach.

 her husband Jiang Shan, which she says is one reason why she is more consistent.

But Jiang is not in Australia, failing to apply for a visa in time, meaning long-distance phone calls to discuss tactics.

"For me, it has been working very well having him as my coach. I call him every day," she said.

 The only problem for her in Australia has been the weather, which has been sizzling. Her winter training in China was in freezing conditions.

"The weather here has been a battle. I have been training in China where it is cold, but I am getting used to it," she said.

While the 24-year-old from Wuhan is at the vanguard of China s push for success here, in the past she has been called temperamental, a choker and has even been accused of having a weak mentality by her own tennis federation.

But she dismisses any friction with the China Tennis Association, which criticised here for not winning the Asian Games title in Doha last month.

"There are no problems. Everything is fine. The Chinese tennis authorities set very high standards for me at the Asian Games and unfortunately I didn t do as well as I hoped," she said.