Li Na, China’s Unlikely Champion
Consider the improbable story of Li Na, the French Open champion and the first player from China to win a Grand Slam singles title. She started to play the game at age 9, quite late for a professional. She never played on a true clay court as a child—she described China’s “sand” courts as “totally different” from top-grade clay and so slippery that they made her feel like she was playing ice hockey. Her father, a former badminton player, died when she was 14 and by 2002, at the age of 20, she had retired to study journalism. “I really didn’t think I could be a good player,” she said. Li didn’t play for two years and at school, no one knew she had ever picked up a racket before. “You have a choice, which sport you want,” she said. “So the friend say, ‘I will choose tennis,’ and I say, ‘No sorry, I don’t know how to play the tennis.'”
No doubt many of those friends—and tens of million more Chinese—were watching and cheering as Li, now age 29, defeated Francesca Schiavone, the defending French Open champion, 6-4, 7-6(0) Saturday. After she won, she made no proclamations about the arrival of China or the importance of her win. She said thank you and wished her friend happy birthday. “I think this is gift for her,” she told the crowd. Such is the charm of Li, who showed nary a sign that she had the expectations of the world’s most populous nation on her racket. Earlier this year in Australia, she reached her first Grand Slam final and lost. Saturday, she played with the calm and precision of a tried and true champion. When she was done, she acted as if her accomplishment was minor, rather than a breakthrough for a nation that has invested much in tennis and until now received no singles champions in return.
The final pitted two contrasting styles and in the end Li’s power overwhelmed Schiavone’s artful spins and sharp angles. She hit 31 winners, 15 off her forehand, and made 24 errors. In the second set tiebreak, she raced out to a 6-0 lead in an instant. “I was thinking about, ‘OK, don’t do stupid thing,'” she said. Li has had a whirlwind season. First she was a surprise finalist at the Australian Open, then she was a veteran in a miserable slump. To get out of it, she hired a new coach, no easy decision since her previous one was also her husband, Jiang Shan. Li said they constantly fought on the court; after she lost in the second round in Stuttgart in April, she said, they sat down and agreed that it was time to make a change.
The story of Li Na is a remarkable one of faith, courage, focus and undying ambition! She is a winner in every sense of the word and a class act. An ideal Asiance young woman and a role-model for all young women!