Melbourne Park, 18 January 2012 | AAP

The desperate search for perfection led to young local Olivia Rogowska’s Australian Open downfall on Wednesday.

Facing the biggest match of her career, against fifth seed and 2011 finalist Li Na, the 20-year-old Victorian was convinced she needed to hit winners off every shot to have any hope.

Sadly, the strategy backfired as Li won 6-2 6-2 in just 62 minutes, but Rogowska says she has learnt a valuable lesson.

“Everything was coming just twice as harder than what I’m used to – twice as deep,” Rogowska said.

“She cleaned the lines. She played some really good tennis.

“I thought personally I was just trying to play too good. I thought I had to hit winners.

“I think the best tennis I played in that match is when I just played within myself.”

Rogowska said she would temper her ambitions next time she played one of the contenders.

“Next time, I’ll probably just play a bit more solid – not go for too much of those crazy shots,” she said.

“I’m going to have to go back in the gym and get that bit faster, stronger.”

She also said she was badly affected by nerves, which led to a lot of trouble with her ball toss, affecting her serve.

“I just wasn’t used to the massive stadium. It was a little gusty out there but it was probably a mixture of nerves as well,” she said.

Rogowska said she has a better idea of what she needs to do to achieve her 2012 goal of cracking the world top 100.

She said the difference between the players she usually faced outside that mark and the stars was that they were “five per cent quicker” getting to the ball and consistently hit with depth.

“It’s something I’m going to have to get used to if I want to play on the big stage,” she said. “Turn the mind off.”

Rogowska will play a mix of challengers and WTA events this season and hopes to be in a position soon where she will not have to rely on wildcards to get into the bigger tournaments.

Li will meet Spain’s Annabel Medina Garrigues, the 26th seed, who crushed Belarusian Olga Govortsova 6-1 6-0.

Doubles results

Men’s doubles, first round

Matthew Ebden/Chris Guccione lost to 4-Mahesh Bhupathi (Ind)/Rohan Bopanna (Ind) 5-7 6-4 6-4

Women’s doubles, first round

Ashleigh Barty/Laura Robson (GBR) lost to Dominika Cibulkova (Svk)/Jill Craybas (USA) 3-6 6-2 6-3

Daniella Jeflea/Viktorija Rajicic lost to Klaudia Jans-Ignacik (Pol)/Urszula Radwanska (Pol) 6-4 7-5

Jelena Dokic/Kateryna Bondarenko (Ukr) lost to Andreja Klepac (Slo)/Alicja Rosolska (Pol)7-6 (8-6) 7-5

Tammi Patterson/Storm Sanders lost to 11-Sara Errani (Ita)/Roberta Vinci (Ita) 6-0 6-0