Don't be fooled into thinking Carlos Rodriguez is Mr Nice Guy, the guy who merely encourages Li Na with applause and thumbs-ups from the stands.

The soft-spoken Argentine's cheerleading during matches belies a demanding training regime that almost pushed Li to her limits.

"The first time I was training with him, I was so excited. But after three days, I was dying," Li joked of Rodriguez's tough programs after beating Agnieszka Radwanska in the Australian Open quarterfinals on Tuesday.

Li didn't fly to Germany for winter training as she used to do in the offseason. Instead, the 30-year-old stayed with Rodriguez in Beijing, where she honed her serve and shots for three hours a day after fitness training that also lasted three hours.

"My husband (Jing Shan) wasn't with me at the beginning. So I called him and said 'Carlos is crazy'. He didn't believe me and came to Beijing the next day. While I was doing some exercises with Carlos the second day, my husband came up midway, asking, 'are you finished?' I said 'only halfway'. He said 'what?' He couldn't believe I did so much cross-training every day."

Despite the taxing drills, Rodriguez's coming has eased some of the pressure on Li's marriage because there are fewer quarrels now as he is no longer coach.

"It was tough to find a balance between his roles as coach and husband," Li said.

"He did a good job. But if he required me to do more training when I was tired, I was feeling, you are my husband, why do you want to push me so hard? But I forgot he was the coach as well. That's why sometimes we had to fight and shout."

(China Daily 01/24/2013 page23)