Li Na bounced in round two, Peng Shuai to face Sharapova in round four
Monday, 27th June 2011 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (0)
As Wimbledon enters its second week, there is a Chinese player still in the running, but not the one that most fans would have expected to see still alive. Peng Shuai faces Maria Sharapova at 12:00 noon local time Monday, after Li Na followed her French Open win with a disappointing second-round exit from Wimbledon. She lost (3-6, 6-4, 8-6) to wildcard Sabine Lisicki, a 21-year-old German who is making a comeback after a long absence due to an ankle injury. Lisicki, whose highest world ranking so far is 22, rode her powerful serve (average speed of first serve, 112 mph) to victory over world number four Li.Although Li's loss is the biggest upset of the tournament so far, and certainly a big disappointment to her, it's something that her fans will need to learn to take in stride. People here seem to have incredibly high expectations for any Chinese athlete that has shown she can compete with the best in the world. Whatever the reason — national pride, thirst for heroes, a disparity between China's political position and its sporting success, or a simple lack of understanding of just how competitive a sport like professional tennis is — fans here seem to expect success to be followed by success and more success.
Fans need to be more patient, Li said after the match, according to this AFP report, which in its headline attributes to her the line "Don't burden me with all your hopes," although the quote or one like it never appears in the story.
Still, Li will of course be looking to approve on this performance in August at the U.S. Open. She might want to consider using some of her French Open prize money to hire a sports psychologist, because she seems to be inconsistent in pressure situations. She blew two match points, committing two unforced errors in the final set against Lisicki. Meanwhile, her opponent rose to the occasion in the final set, slugging out four serves in a row between 122 and 126 mph. Earlier this year at the Australian Open, Li got off to a 6-3 start, but completely lost her edge in the last two sets to lose to Clijsters 3-6, 6-3, 6-3.
For now, China has one more hope alive in this tournament. This year, 25-year-old Peng Shuai reached the fourth round at the Australian Open, and retired from the French Open in the second round due to illness. She has beaten Li Na and Svetlana Kuznetsova this season, and lost to Sharapova in three sets at Indian Wells in March.
Tags: Li Na, Peng Shuai
Open System, Open Win: What Li Na means to Chinese sports
Sunday, 5th June 2011 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (0)
The title should be a boon for tennis in China, where it was already relatively popular and accessible. And it makes Li the most compelling currently active sportsperson in the country, especially after hurdler Liu Xiang came in second at the Prefontaine Classic and announced he won't compete in Europe before world championships late this summer. But the most important legacy of her win might be captured by the message printed on the 30 special-edition T-shirts Nike made for her camp to wear during the tournament: "Zaojiu zji," roughly translated as, "Create yourself." Li -- along with Zheng Jie, Yan Zi and Peng Shuai -- is part of an experiment in self-determination unprecedented in the Chinese sports world.
Less than three years ago, the Chinese Tennis Association announced its "Fly Alone" program, giving the players the option to leave the national team to train on their own, set their schedules, choose their coaches, control their commercial activities and keep 88% of their winnings, instead of turning over 65% to the federation. Li had two strong seasons and then made a run to the final of the Australian Open this year. She lost to Kim Clijsters, but took advantage of her stock to sign major new endorsements — Li represents Nike, Haagen-Dazs, Rolex and SpiderTech.
Li's victory at Roland Garros after just two seasons on her own validates the association's decision to extend these women so much independence. Some tennis writers have attributed her win in part to the fact that she changed coaches between the Australian Open and the French Open, demoting her husband and hiring Denmark's Michael Mortenson — not something she could have done three years ago.
In a post-match press conference, the Chinese Tennis Association chief deemed the reforms a success: "We took a lot of risks with this reform. When we let them fly, we didn't know if they would succeed. That they have now succeeded, means our reform was correct," said Sun Jinfang. "This reform will serve as a good example for reforms in other sports."
China's bureaucrats have demonstrated a fondness for the guinea pig approach to change. The country's transition to a market economy began with reforms isolated to cities designated as "special economic zones," before spreading to the rest of the country.
If similar changes are to come in other sports, it probably won't be until after the 2012 Olympics in London—sports administration leaders are unlikely to veer from the cautious course before then. And the CTA's reforms can't be simply copied by the sports China seems most concerned about— team sports, whose competition format and business model differ greatly from tennis. But China's much-maligned national men's football team, and the mediocre play in its national basketball league, might benefit from policies that encourage athletes to get playing experience outside of the country.
In the post-match ceremony, Li thanked her sponsors, tournament directors, ball boys, linesmen, chair umpires, her training team, fans and a friend—notably making no mention of her country or the Chinese Tennis Association. But why should she have to thank them? She wore red and yellow on the dais and sang along as the Chinese national anthem was played and the flag was raised. Do people expect Roger Federer to thank Switzerland whenever he wins a major? Or the Williams sisters to thank America?
Li Na is the vanguard of a new breed of Chinese athlete. She is creating herself, following her own path and hoping to squeeze as many wins as she can out of her career, but she is also creating a legacy will last long past her retirement, and extend beyond her own sport.
Li Na image: Xinhua
Tags: French Open, Li Na, tennis
Li Na fills a void at top of Chinese sports world
Friday, 28th January 2011 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (0)
Li and coach/husband Jiang Shan. After her semifinal win, she complained that his snoring had kept her up the night before and said he'd be banished to their hotel room's bathtub.
Li has already made history; her comeback win over world No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki in Melbourne Thursday made her the first Chinese tennis player to reach a Grand Slam final. Interviewed post-match, Li said her motivation in the final set was "prize money," and local news stories have focused heavily on the purse—$2.2 million AUD ($2.175 USD, or more than 14 million RMB) if she wins, and half that if she loses.
Although China's 51-gold medal performance at the 2008 Beijing Olympics showed that it has its share of world-class athletes, few of these athletes have the chance to compete for millions. Yao Ming is among the NBA's 10 best-paid players, but Liu Xiang can only compete for a few dozen thousand dollars at the IAAF World Championships.
But there's a lot more than $2 million USD at stake here. If Li Na can win Saturday, and follow that up with a strong season, she should be able to rack up the endorsements from now through the 2012 Olympics in London.
Li's big moment coincides with a void at the top of the Chinese sports world, a lack of active elites. Yao Ming played limited minutes in five games, before injuring himself yet again and announcing he would sit out the 2010-11 season (though that didn't stop Chinese fans from voting him into the starting lineup at the All-Star game). Yi Jianlian is averaging about 6 points and 3 rebounds for the Washington Wizards, who have not won a road game all season. Liu Xiang was back in form en route to his Asian Games gold in November, but has yet to prove he has recovered his ability to beat the world's best. And although diver Guo Jingjing will stay in the limelight, a retired athlete makes a much less compelling pitchwoman.
IMG has handled Li's commercial activities since 2009, about a year after she struck out on her own when China's tennis federation extended to top players the freedom to set their own training schedules, handle their own business deals, and keep more of their winnings. Li has been an outspoken advocate of expanding this policy to other sports, saying last year, "It is very important for us to have the right to choose. I really mean it."
Related: All-China Australian Open final? Making history and a case for reform
Li Na to kick out snoring husband in bid to break China's duck
Li Na and husband/coach image: PClady.com
Tags: IMG, Li Na, sports marketing, tennis
Li Na's appearance in Australian Open semis inspires lazy, offensive writing
Wednesday, 26th January 2011 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (1)
It's not the first time that a Chinese player has made it into a Grand Slam semi – that honor goes to Zheng Jie, who reached the Wimbledon semifinal in 2008, and then along with Li became the first two Chinese players to reach the semis in the same Grand Slam, at last year's Australian Open. But this tournament's final four offers the best shot yet for a Chinese player to reach the final, with weaker competition than they have faced in the past. Li's next opponent, Denmark's Caroline Wozniacki, is currently the World No. 1, but has never won a Grand Slam. In fact, of the remaining players, only Kim Clijsters has. She holds three US Open titles, from 2005, 2009 and 2010.
By contrast, last year in Melbourne Zheng lost to Justine Henin, winner of seven Grand Slams. Serena Williams defeated Li and went on to win her 26th Grand Slam title. Li and Wozniacki play in the afternoon on Thursday, January 27.
Finally, while we're on the subject of Li Na, I'd like to take a second to editorialize on what I find to be a horribly insensitive and borderline racist approach to this story by a British newspaper. The Guardian's man in Melbourne, Kevin Mitchell teases us with the headline "Li Na hopes to make great leap forward against Caroline Wozniacki."
The Great Leap Forward was the euphemistic propaganda name given to a Mao Zedong campaign that caused the death of millions of Chinese people – many due to starvation. Hardly something to bring up as we should be celebrating the great strides made by China's female tennis players, strides often attributed to the Chinese tennis administration's willingness to experiment with giving its athletes more freedom than is enjoyed by their peers in other sports.
After that, Mitchell brings us this lede:
"Li Na is not half a police siren but it might well be the skinniest collection of letters of any major figure in the history of sport. The 28-year-old player from Hubei province in the middle of China is two matches from expanding her profile beyond her fondest dreams in the final of the Australian Open."
Seriously? This athlete starts off the 2011 season with a Grand Slam semifinal appearance, and you start off an article about her by making fun of her name for… being short and sounding foreign? If Li Na makes it to the next stage, hopefully Mitchell will dispense with the crude jokes, and resist the urge to call this "Tennis's Cultural Revolution."
Li Na image: Xinmin.com.cn
Tags: Li Na, tennis
An all-China Australian Open final? Making history and a case for reform
Thursday, 28th January 2010 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (1)
Li Na
Li Na and Zheng Jie were two players who took up the Chinese Tennis Association on an offer in 2008 (after the Olympics) to take greater control of their training and keep more of their prize money. The tradeoff was giving up some of the support and security offered by the CTA. Less than two years after this experiment began, Li Na and Zheng Jie are opening the 2010 tennis season by becoming the first pair of Chinese players to make it to the singles final at a Grand Slam (they were also the first pair to the quarterfinals). Li Na took down Venus Williams in her quarterfinal, and Zheng beat Maria Kirilenko.
These two didn't come out of nowhere, and it's not the first major success for China's female tennis stars. Zheng and her partner Zi Yan won the doubles final at the Australian Open in 2006, and Zheng reached the semifinals of Wimbledon in 2008. But coming just one season after both players took control of their own careers, it supports Li's argument last year that such freedom should be extended to other sports. "It is very important for us to have the right to choose. I really mean it," she said last spring, according to an AFP report.
Li Na's semi against Serena Williams is live right now, and Zheng Jie's semi against Justine Henin will take place Friday morning. And in keeping the footwear theme in this week's posts, it should be noted that Zheng Jie is wearing Chinese brand Anta shoes and gear. Li Na is still with Nike.
Related: Zhang Shuai and the future of Chinese tennis
Li Na image: Xunying.com
Tags: Anta, Australian Open, Li Na, Nike, state sports system, tennis, Zheng Jie
Zhang knocks off world No. 1 Safina at China Open
Monday, 5th October 2009 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (0)
Zhang at the 2009 US Open, where she was eliminated in the first round
Rafael Nadal plays his first match of the tournament Tuesday, opening up against wild card Marcos Baghdatis. The China Open Web site is a little slow and scattered with the scheduling information, but expect Nadal to play late in the evening session, which starts at 7 p.m.
If you're in Beijing, tickets are available—lots of them, from the looks of it inside Center Court on Sunday. You can purchase online in advance, walk up to the box office, or try your luck with the scalpers outside the National Tennis Center. Getting strong attendance is a challenge at sporting events in China—even an event like this that has taken place here for several years, and features Chinese players with a good chance of going deep in the tournament. At Sunday's daytime session, on a beautiful fall holiday weekend, the arena wavered between about 15 percent and 30 percent capacity at Center Court, where Zheng Jie, Dinara Safina and Serena Williams all played.
While crowds were pretty thin inside the arena, the sponsors who purchased booths on the grounds enjoyed steady foot traffic. With some tennis-themed games to play, and concessions supplied by Papa John's, Element Fresh, RBT (Chinese fast food) and Heineken (Murphy's Stout on tap!), spectators at the China Open have a lot more to enjoy and choose from than they would at most Chinese sports events.
To get to the National Tennis Center, take the Line 8 subway (the Olympic line) to Olympic Park and look for a shuttle bus or ask a taxi driver to take you to the National Tennis Center (国家网球中心) on Aolin Xilu (奥林西路).
Tags: China Open, Dinara Safina, Li Na, Rafael Nadal, Serena Williams, tennis, Zhang Shuai
Zheng makes victorious return to Wimbledon, Li also advances
Wednesday, 24th June 2009 ~ Chris ~ Link ~ Comments (0)
China's top female tennis player Zheng Jie (郑洁) returned victoriously to Wimbledon on Monday one year after she made a name for herself by reaching the tournament's semifinal round.
Zheng, currently ranked number 15 in the world, beat Kristina Barrois of Germany 7-6 (2), 7-6 (4) at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in London on Monday in what was a high-pressure return for the Chengdu native.
"Indeed, there is a big change for me in one year and I do feel more pressure coming back here," Zheng recently told the China Daily. "A lot of people hope I make the semi-finals again or go even better."
Zheng has been a Wimbledon champion before – in 2006 she and doubles partner Yan Zi won the women's doubles competition.
The diminutive Zheng still has far to go to equal her standout performance last year – her next step is to face Slovakia's Daniela Hantuchova in the second round today.
This year's tournament is the first to feature two Chinese seeds in the singles draw – Zheng is joined by Li Na (李娜), who is ranked number 19 in the world. Li has also advanced to the second round after beating Kazakhstan's Galina Voskoboev on Tuesday.
Zheng Jie image: Women's Tennis Blog
Tags: Li Na, tennis, Wimbledon, Zheng Jie
Ugliness and Grumbling
Tuesday, 21st April 2009 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (0)
The Chinese Football Association embarrassed itself yet again by sending professionals to play in the International School Sports Federation's World Schools Championship. A bunch of women who play in the CFA suited up for China's Chongqing Daping, beating the girls from Germany just 8-6 in the final. The CFA claims it had nothing to do with this, but given the amount of control that Chinese sports administrations and teams exercise over athletes, it is impossible that these women snuck off to Turkey to play in the tournament.
Tennis player speaks out against state system
Tennis player Li Na called for other athletes to enjoy the freedom that has recently been extended to China's tennis players. She and Zheng Jie have both improved their rankings since the Chinese Tennis Association has freed them to determine their training schedules and keep more of their winnings.
Tags: CFA, cheating, football, Li Na, soccer, state sports administration, tennis, Zheng Jie
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