LI NA used the heat to her advantage and worked No. 2-ranked Maria Sharapova around Rod Laver Arena in a 6-2, 6-2 win Thursday that put her in the Australian Open final for the second time in three years.

    Sharapova was the heavy favorite after conceding only nine games in her first five matches, a record at the Australian Open since it expanded to a 128-player draw in 1988.

    But the semifinal started badly for the 25-year-old Russian, serving double-faults to lose the first two points and conceding a break in the first game.

    Li has become known for clawing her way back into matches after allowing opponents a headstart but the 30-year-old Chinese was on the offensive from the start.

    Asia’s first Grand Slam single champion unleashed a searing backhand winner down the line to pressure Sharapova at deuce in the first game and broke the Russian by prevailing in a fierce baseline skirmish.

    Keeping Sharapova pinned to the baseline and jumping on her second serve, Li raced to a 4-1 lead courtesy of an imperious backhand down the line on the third break-point of the game.

    Sharapova, struggling to breach Li’s defenses with her serve, smacked a huge backhand return to claw back a break but was broken again when she netted.

    Li marched on to raise three set points, closing it out in style by blasting a cross-court forehand that kissed the line.

    With the temperature rising above 34 Celsius (93F), Sharapova began to take swings at everything Li threw at her and raised a breakpoint at 1-0, but the Chinese showed nerves of steel, cancelling it out with a cross-court forehand winner that grazed the line.

    Li pressed again at 2-2, with Sharapova conceding a second break point in the game with her fifth double-fault and then smacking a backhand long to fall behind 3-2.

    Li ripped three huge serves to stave off a breakpoint in the following game, enjoying a rush of confidence that she rode to victory.

    “Everyone could be nervous in the final,” Li said courtside after completing the rout in one hour and 33 minutes. “I have to enjoy (the) tennis. Nothing better. Looking forward to the final.”

    Brimming with confidence, the Chinese late-bloomer will be hard to beat in the final at Melbourne Park, where she has consistently played some of her best Grand Slam tennis.

    Li reached the final of the 2011 Australian Open, losing to Kim Clijsters, and is only one games away from a second major title, one that would really see her achieve superstardom in Asia and the rest of the world, to almost match the attention she receives in China.

    Li paid tribute to the “crazy” Beijing fitness camp conducted by new coach Carlos Rodriguez.

    Li credits Rodriguez with turning her tennis career around — and saving her marriage.

    Last August, the 30-year-old Chinese star hired Rodriguez, who coached Justine Henin to seven Grand Slam titles, after the conflicts with her previous coach — husband Jiang Shan — became too much to bear.

    “It’s just being coach and husband is — how you say — tough to find a balance!” she said.

    Now Li and Jiang have found marital peace again — fewer disagreements on or off the court — and she is winning again.

    Li hired Rodriguez after disappointing early-round losses at Wimbledon and the London Olympics. He joined her midweek at a tournament in Cincinnati — they had never even met before — and she captured the title, her first since her breakthrough Grand Slam win at Roland Garros in 2011.

    She then won a second title at the inaugural Shenzhen Open earlier this month and is now in the final of the Australian Open for the second time in three years.

    Rodriguez has had a steadying influence on Li, who had previously struggled to control her emotions on court and has appeared more composed since starting to work with him.

    Two years ago, on her way to becoming the first Chinese player to reach a Grand Slam final at the Australian Open, Li was pure entertainment in her news conferences, joking about her husband’s snoring and admitting she forgot her own wedding anniversary.

    After her win at the French Open, however, things changed. She began to put more pressure on herself at Grand Slams — and didn’t make a quarterfinal at six consecutive major tournaments. At last year’s Australian Open, she left in tears after wasting four match points in the fourth round against Clijsters.

    Now the humor is back. Li related the difficulties she had when she started training with Rodriguez at the Spaniard’s tennis academy in Beijing. After three days of six-hour workouts, she called her husband in distress.

    “Carlos is crazy,” she told him.

    Jiang didn’t believe her, so he came to Beijing to see for himself.

    “I was doing some exercises with Carlos. [Jiang] was sitting in the gym,” Li said. “After I was halfway done, he was like, ‘Are you finished?’ I said, ‘No, only halfway.’

    “He said, ‘I’m tired!’ I said, ‘Don’t say that. I’m doing exercises; you’re only sitting. Don’t say you’re tired.’”

    Li acknowledges now the hard work was worth it.

    Li’s success has not only delighted her fellow countrymen and boosted the development of Chinese tennis, it also called for a further reform of the discouraging stimulative system in Chinese Tennis Association (CTA), appealing to release the players from rigid training methods and adapt to international standards.

    Aiming to produce more high-ranking players, like Li, China’s tennis governing body has vowed to expand its professional reforms to get more players involved on a large scale from 2013 to 2016.

    After allowing its top four females, including Li, to separate from the system and manage their own careers with personal crews after the Beijing Olympics, Chinese tennis started to rise with that group of players competing consistently on the Woman’s Tennis Association (WTA) Tour and claiming titles.

    According to new regulations discussed at a forum in last December, the CTA will rate all players and place them in four levels.

    Players who rank high enough to play in major main draws won’t have to hand in a portion of their prize money and commercial incomes (formerly 8-12 percent) to the CTA under the new system.

    Lower-ranked players who struggle to make WTA or Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) tournaments will continue to receive support while being allowed more freedom to set tournament schedules and market themselves. For the International Tennis Federation (ITF) level players and juniors, the State system will take care of them but allow flexibility in the management of their training.

    To further market its managed players’ value, the CTA is also considering building up its official sports agent service by setting accreditation rules for agents and then linking them with players.(SD-Agencies)