Get Her Nike Tennis Gear, Her Babolat Racquet & Bag, & Find Out More About China's Late-Flowering Tennis Sensation
Li Na, (or Na Li to put the family name first as in China), has matured as a tennis player like a fine wine - a little better with every passing year. Now her recent improvements have brought her to within a whisker of the very top of women's tennis.
This didn't seem very likely at all in 2002 aged 20, when she took two years off from tennis to study at her local University in China with her husband. Her results up to them had been very promising, but she remembers thinking that she'd never quite make the grade with her WTA Tour ranking stuck near 120.
Her start in tennis in childhood was a little unusual as well. In China, Badminton and Table Tennis (Ping Pong) are much bigger sports, and talented children are immediately encouraged along these lines. Li's coach noticed that she wasn't playing badminton naturally with mainly wrist movements but more from the shoulder as in tennis.
He asked her parents to switch Li to tennis instead, which her parents duly agreed to, once they'd been told that there was indeed a sport called tennis!
Li Na Creeps Up The WTA Rankings
Li Na didn't exactly explode onto the tennis scene as a teenager, like Maria Sharapova. She's gradually improved 'under the radar' for much of her career. Svetlana Kuznetsova was the first professional player to notice her qualities in 2004, and said playing Li was like facing a top five player.
Over the next few years she beat most of the world's best players when she moved from the ITF circuit to the WTA Tour, but couldn't sustain her level to reach the business end of tournaments, due to a string of untimely injuries and ailments.
Perhaps the critical moment in her career came when in 2008 she decided to rebel against China's National Sporting Program that had nurtured her tennis path until then. She was now free to choose the world's best coaches, trainers and strategy to take her tennis to the very top.
She started to reach finals and win a few, like the 2010 Birmingham warm up tournament for Wimbledon on grass.
Even in her wildest dreams, she couldn't have expected 2011 to be such a successful year. It started with winning the Sydney International Tournament in Australia - her first premier level WTA title. Then she reached the final at the Australian Open.
She's now capped it all by winning at Roland Garros, after bringing in Denmark's Fed Cup coach, Michael Mortensen recently to bolster her confidence and tweak her game after some mediocre post Australia performances.
Every country loves their outstanding sports performers and China is no exception. Li has been setting 'the-first-Chinese-woman-in-tennis-to....' records every year; such as: enter the top 30; be seeded at a Slam; win a WTA tournament; reach a Slam quarter final; etc etc.
Now she's got the record she really wanted - the first Chinese woman to win the French Open, or indeed any Slam. These 'first to' achievements haven't gone unnoticed in China, and tennis is threatening to 'take off' there, as a nation responds with pride and young Chinese want to emulate their woman tennis star.
This could be lucrative indeed for Li as sponsors fall over themselves to grab a piece of the huge Chinese market that Li now gives them access to by her popularity, now elevated further by the Slam. Her runner up position in Australia has already yeilded deals with Rolex watches and Haagen-Dazs.
She doesn't seem the type to let the money go to her head though, as evidenced by her giving away all her winnings from the Madrid Open in 2010 to the Chinese Foundation For Poverty Alleviation. She's not moved to the tax haven of Monaco either, like a number of the top players. She still lives in the city of her birth - Wuhan in the Hubei Province of central China.
Li Na has a very engaging personality. She stole the show at the Australian Open Final speeches with her insights into her family life with her husband and then trainer, Jiang Shan - in particular his snoring. She is also disarmingly honest, saying that it was the thought of the check at the tournament's end that spurred her on to compete at the highest level during the earlier rounds.
Her incredible fitness and competitive spirit are mainly the legacy of her father's hard work ethic, that she took to heart before his death when she was only 14.
The Tennis Visor Is Li Na's Favorite Item Of Tennis Gear. She Wears It Indoors & Out, & Loves Nike's New Colored Visors
She's a tendancy to be a bit too feisty and combative sometimes though, a bit like her tennis hero, Andre Agassi. For example, she tried to silence a vocal Chinese element in the crowd during the Australian Open final by asking the referee: 'Can you tell the Chinese, don't teach me how to play tennis?' Her easy going husband and part time focus of her aggression is the perfect counterbalance to thisvolatility.
Her split from the Chinese coaching system and her Rose tattoo on her chest are further examples of herdeterminatation to stamp her own personality on proceedings.
In those rare moments when she's not playing or practicing tennis and is back in China, she likes to visit Beijing and if time permits she enjoys shopping. She also fills her spare time with listening to music, particularly slow music, and reading. In the very short off season she's even partial to a beer - Tsingtao beer preferably.
Li Na considers herself to be still young, though 29 in tennis is supposedly getting on a bit. Her late start into competitive tennis should help her career longevity, and she's still improving so talk of retirement is premature. After all, her hero Andre Agassi was still at the top aged 34.
After tennis, her 'media' studies at university should stand her in good stead for a career as journalist or tennis comentator in China or elsewhere, though she's likely to be very marketable like Maria Sharapova or Ana Ivanovic long after her tennis retirement.
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