China's Li Na made a triumphant night-time debut on Sunday at the US Open with an impressive rout of former world number one Jelena Jankovic to reach the quarter-finals and match her best New York result.
But tournament organisers take note -- she would rather be playing in the daytime, thank you very much.
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Fifth seed Li, the 2011 French Open champion, needed only 57 minutes to defeat Serbian ninth seed Jankovic 6-3, 6-0 and book a last-eight date against Russian 24th seed Ekaterina Makarova.
And she did it under the lights in the last match of the night at Arthur Ashe Stadium, where the show and entertainment aspects swirl with the tennis to produce a unique, noisy environment.
“I like first match because after first match, you have whole day,” Li said. “Not like night session. For night session you have to wait the whole day and play in the night. But after winning the match I was feeling OK, just a little bit late,” she added.
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