MELBOURNE: With a first Australian Open crown now inches from her grasp, perennial crowd favorite Down Under Kim Clijsters could find herself cast in the unfamiliar role of villain Saturday as she stands between trailblazing Chinese Li Na's own designs on destiny. The genial Belgian in a pea green dress enjoys the fond nickname “Aussie Kim” at the Melbourne Grand Slam but if, as expected, she finds enough firepower to dash Li's dreams of becoming Asia's first grand slam singles champion, crowd celebrations may be muted from a public which has rapidly warmed to the Chinese player. In any case, Clijsters knows that despite being tournament favorite she cannot afford any slips in her bid to shatter Chinese hopes and will not make the mistake of underestimating Li, who has firmly shed her reputation for mental fragility with her dream run in Melbourne. “(In the past) she was never quite able to make it through a whole Grand Slam,” third seed Clijsters told reporters Friday. “Mentally (now) you see a big difference.” It remains to be seen whether Li carried out her threat to make husband and coach Jiang Shan sleep in the bathroom on the eve of the women's final because of his snoring. The ninth seed, who said the final also marked the couple's wedding anniversary, blamed her slow start in the semifinal victory over world No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki on Jiang's nocturnal noise. Clijsters, whose relationship with Australian player Lleyton Hewitt endeared her to fans Down Under, has won three grand slam titles and is in devastating form. She is yet to drop a set on her way to a second Australian Open final, and first since 2004. The working mum, who captured two of her three US Open crowns after returning to the women's game in 2009 following a two-year break, has shown scant regard for sentimentality. She handed fellow former world No. 1 Dinara Safina the dreaded ‘double bagel' with a 6-0 6-0 first round blowout which left the Russian in floods of tears. Her 6-3, 6-3 semifinal victory over second seed Vera Zvonareva, whom she also thrashed in last year's US Open final, was no less brutal and she will replace the Russian as world No. 2 when the new rankings are published. Li, however, did upset Kim in the Sydney final before the year's first major and is in the form of her life. “I don't think I was quite ready to compete 100 percent against her in Sydney,” said Clijsters, who has racked up 40 titles and over $21 million in career prize money. “She played incredibly well, probably the best that I've ever played against her. So it'll be tough. But I'm going to go out and fight for each shot like yesterday's (semi-final).” The hard-hitting Li is on an 11-match winning streak after claiming her fourth title in Sydney and has been inundated with tearful messages from well-wishing friends. Li insisted she had taken steps to curb her rebellious nature and was mentally prepared for Saturday's championship match. “I was like (Andre) Agassi before ... because of his long hair and jeans,” she joked, while adding her mother still had no interest in watching her play. “She doesn't watch the matches,” said Li. “She sent me a text message. She said, ‘Well done! I'm waiting for you at home.' Yeah, that's it.”
