Fed up with boisterous shouts from Chinese fans during the tense second set, ninth seed Li marched to the chair umpire after being broken at 3-3 and asked her: "Can you tell the Chinese, don't teach me how to play tennis?"
The irritable Li won only three games for the rest of the match on a balmy evening at Melbourne Park as she went down 3-6 6-3 6-3 to end China's dreams of a first grand slam singles champion.
"There were a lot of people coaching me," she told reporters. "It was really loud and it wasn't just one direction, it was from all sides.
"I think Chinese people watching tennis can't be polite ... (saying) 'Take her out!' and other things.
"When they were calling out things it was during returns, so I felt" — and here she inhaled sharply — "so tired!"
The outburst was reminiscent of her moment during her semifinal against Dinara Safina at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, when she told the local crowd to "shut up."
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