Chinese Li Na Asia’s first French Open champ

This past month has been a whirlwind for professional tennis player Li Na. Since early in year she has been offered endorsement deals with Rolex, Haagen-Dazs, and Mercedes Benz, traveled across countless countries as a cultural ambassador, even the price of a domain name lina.cn was recently valued in the tens of thousands. This would be of no surprise for any tennis fan: in winning the Women's singles championship in the French Open in early June, Li Na not only became China's first women ever to win a major tournament, but also first Asian player to win a Grand Slam in the singles category.

 By Anthony James, Staff Writer

This past month has been a whirlwind for professional tennis player Li Na. Since early in year she has been offered endorsement deals with Rolex, Haagen-Dazs, and Mercedes Benz, traveled across countless countries as a cultural ambassador, even the price of a domain name lina.cn was recently valued in the tens of thousands. This would be of no surprise for any tennis fan: in winning the Women's singles championship in the French Open in early June, Li Na not only became China's first women ever to win a major tournament, but also first Asian player to win a Grand Slam in the singles category.

Chinese tennis star Li Na
Winning the French title has appeared to be the pinnacle of a grueling year for Li Na. Prior to winning the French Open she had worked her way up through the Australian open to become the first Chinese to reach a Grand Slam final. In her final against number three seed Kim Clijsters, Li Na suffered a close loss but ultimately gained a career high worldwide ranking of #7. Afterward, Li would then lose at the 2011 Dubar Tennis Championship and the 2011 Qatar Ladies Open.  When she entered into the French Open, she was seeded in sixth place.

The final game was against Francesca Schiavonne in the French Open was watched by 95 million viewers in China. The front page of the leading newspapers in China hailed her as "writing an Asian legend", anointing her has a national hero and ambassador of Chinese values. As a rising icon, many marketers have predicted that Li Na would become one of the most valuable athletes in future years, noting the ever growing a fan base among the large Chinese market. With Li Na taking a place just behind Yao Ming in Forbes Chinese Celebrity, the name recognition has propelled the sport into the limelight, which is quite a new market. In China, tennis is ranked third behind soccer and basketball in terms of popularity and a low percentage of the population watch it regularly.

Li Na's journey into the sport began when her badminton coaches noticed that her swing and form was more akin to tennis and encouraged her to begin training. In 1997 she joined the national team and worked alongside many rising amateur tennis players from across the nation. Though a formidable teammate, Li Na's free spirit soon endured complications, especially with her instructor's coaching methods. In 1999 Li broke off to become a professional, later placing her husband and former teammate Jiang Shan as her personal coach. Between 1999 and 2004 Li would go on to win 20 women's titles: 19 ITF events and one WTA title. Though she did meet losses playing against some of best players in the world, Li broke significant ground for China: Li's first WTA title was the first ever WTA title won by a Chinese. In 2006, Li became the first Chinese to be ranked in the top 30 players in the world, eventually breaking into the top 20 that year. Even through her solo career, Li also managed to become a student again. In 2002 she took a break from tennis to complete a degree in journalism in Beijing. She returned to the national team in 2004 and later would join an experimental reform policy that allowed players to chose their own coaches as well as garner a much higher percentage of their winnings which usually went all to the government.

Li Na's fame soon brought fresh eyes to the sport, Although she was becoming a star in China, most of the world did not even know about Li Na until the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. In two straight sets, Li defeated the American superstar Venus Williams, 7-5, 7-5. Though she lost in the semi final match against Russian Dinara Safina and would lose again against Russian Vera Zyonareva in the bronze medal match, the West took note of a potential tennis star in the making.

As of June 23, Li Na's journey into the women's Wimbleton title came to an abrupt end in the second round. Though upset of the loss, the tennis star appeared hopeful of the future when talking with the media. As there have been setbacks in the past before, the Grand Slam champion is humbled to return home to meet the millions of new tennis fans awaiting her.