China's tennis ace plays East-West split
By Muhammad Cohen
NUSA DUA, Bali - China and the West are divided on many issues, from the value
of the Chinese currency to the geopolitics of the West Pacific. Those
differences are just as sharp when the focus turns to Li Na, the most
successful tennis player in the history of China.
While reconciliation on other issues seems distant with positions hardening, Li
is working to bridge her East-West gap. In an interview at the Commonwealth
Bank Tournament of Champions in Bali, Li said, "It's important to me to be
popular in China. That way I can help China."
The first Chinese player to reach the tennis top 10 at number nine last August,
Li wins Western fans for her volatile, all-out style of play. The 28-year-old
sports a rose tattoo across her chest and
plays with muscular abandon that can beat any player on the tour. This year,
she broke with the Chinese tennis establishment, a move that allows her to
choose her own coaches, set her own schedule and keep five times more of her
prize money, which has topped US$1.1 million for 2010.
Do it yourself perils
Li, who began the year ranked 15th and finished at number 11, believes playing
as an independent has helped her progress. "But when you make a choice," she
said, "there's always a good side and a bad side."
The drive to go independent further tarnished Li's image with the Chinese
public and authorities, as well as corporate sponsors. Chinese tennis officials
view Li as a "constant headache", according to one insider. She quit tennis in
2002 and had to be begged to come back to the national team in 2004. She
criticized Chinese fans after losing in the semi-finals of the 2008 Summer
Olympic Games in Beijing, hasn't played on the Fed Cup national team since
then, and exited ingloriously in the first round of last year's China National
Games.
Her apparent reluctance to display real national spirit is more galling because
China's current generation of women players benefited from special
opportunities, including extra training and international travel, that weren't
given to their male counterparts. "More investment and focus on a small group
of women has elevated the sport at the expense of the men," the insider, who
asked not to be identified, said. "The real young boys have great hope as more
emphasis is now being placed on them." Sports authorities also now recognize
that all young players need to go through qualifying rounds at international
tournaments to gain match play experience.
Giving back
Under guidance from leading sports management agency IMG, Li has tried to
improve her image, including toning down her cantankerous behavior during
matches and her provocative statements off court. After China's April
earthquake in Yushu, Li donated her US$79,513 check from reaching the
quarterfinals of the Madrid Open in May to disaster relief. In her interview
with Asia Times Online, Li announced she would also donate her US$169,445
winnings from the semifinal of last month's China Open to a children's charity
in China.
She's looking forward to playing for China and Chinese fans in the Asian Games
that open on Friday in Guangzhou. "The Asian Games are very important," Li
said. "It's a mini-Olympics, all the Asian players will play. It may be my last
chance for the Asian Games."
While saluting Li's efforts, the insider noted, "Unfortunately, her age does
not leave her much time to really make an overall comeback off court."
Seeded number one at the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) season-ending
Commonwealth Bank Tournament of Champions, an elite event in Bali, Li crashed
out in the first round. Japan's Kimiko Date-Krumm, aged 40 and a former top 10
player who returned to the pro tour last year after an eight year hiatus,
downed Li 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 in a match that exposed the lack of variety in Li's
game.
The post-match press conference revealed Li's surly side. "It's normal in
sports to win or lose," she said. "If I'm the number one seed, I'm not supposed
to lose?"
Net gains
Love her or not, Li's success has helped create a tennis boom in China. Success
on the international stage, beginning with Li Ting and Sun Tiantian winning the
women's doubles gold medal at the 2004 Athens Olympics, has spurred the sport's
growth. The subsequent success of Li and Zheng Jie, winner of China's first two
titles at the four big Grand Slam tournaments in women's doubles with Yan Zi
and its first Grand Slam semifinalist in singles, encourage across-the-board
Chinese interest in tennis.
"Players doing well on the international stage creates hype," one sports
insider said. "Li and Zheng playing in Grand Slams and doing well creates
excitement that increases TV ratings dramatically, as with the Australian Open
this year," when Li and Zheng both reached that Grand Slam tournament's
semi-finals.
Li is glad her success has piqued tennis interest in China. "After seeing
Chinese do well, more children chose to play tennis, more people support and
watch tennis," the Wuhan native said. "In China, the popular sports are table
tennis, badminton, diving. Tennis is different, it doesn't have a long history
in China. We need to grow up in tennis."
After two years training as a badminton player, Li's coaches decider her stiff
wrist was better suited for tennis. Nine-year-old-Li asked, "What's tennis?"
Today, practically everyone in China knows tennis, and everyone in tennis knows
China. "Tennis in China is looked upon as a fashionable, healthy lifetime
sport," the insider explained. "The success of the women [players] is combined
with the rising upper class and now middle class recognizing tennis is an elite
sport that can work in social and business circles. From a commercial
standpoint, many sponsors are tempted by consumers' disposable income, so
tennis is a good fit for companies like Mercedes-Benz [which sponsors the Swing
for the Stars junior tennis development as well as pro tournaments]."
China's recent football corruption scandal shows the danger when sponsorship
money gets mixed up with national sports authorities. Li doesn't believe
corruption is inevitable in sports as money moves in. The insider said,
"Corruption is across the board in subtle and not so subtle ways. There's too
much interest in China by sponsors dealing with inexperienced and underpaid
officials that look at money coming in without any real financial incentives to
those in charge. So it is a 'where is mine?' attitude. Gifts and other
less-visible incentives are common practice unfortunately."
Corruption isn't even the right term, according to this source, "because,
frankly this type of action is a way of life in national and pro sports in
China".
Li is confident China can meet and beat the challenges it faces, and that East
and West will meet, saying, "I wish China can be like Russia and the US - in
tennis."
Reforming sportswriter and former broadcast news producer Muhammad Cohen told
America’s story to the world as a US diplomat and is author of
Hong Kong On Air,
a novel set during the 1997 handover about television news, love, betrayal,
financial crisis, and cheap lingerie. Follow
Muhammad Cohen’s blog for more on the media and Asia, his adopted home.
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