Paris\u00a0 \u2014 As Li Na tossed the ball while serving at match point in the French Open final, a cry from a fan in the stands pierced the silence at Court Philippe Chatrier.<\/p>\n
Distracted, Li stopped and let the ball drop. The words of support were in Mandarin: \u201cJia you!\u201d \u2014 which loosely translates to \u201cLet\u2019s go!\u201d After so many years of \u201cCome on\u201d and \u201cAllez\u201d and \u201cVamos,\u201d there\u2019s a new language on the tennis landscape.<\/p>\n
Li became the first Chinese player, man or woman, to win a Grand Slam singles title by beating defending champion Francesca Schiavone of Italy 6-4, 7-6 (0) at Roland Garros on Saturday.<\/p>\n
The sixth-seeded Li used powerful groundstrokes to compile a 31-12 edge in winners, and won the last nine points of the match, a run that began when the fifth-seeded Schiavone was flustered by a line call she was sure was wrong.<\/p>\n
\u201cChina tennis \u2014 we\u2019re getting bigger and bigger,\u201d said Li, who is projected to rise to a career-best No. 4 in Monday\u2019s WTA rankings.<\/p>\n
She already was the first woman from that nation of more than 1 billion people to win a WTA singles title, the first to enter the top 10 in the rankings, and the first to make it to a Grand Slam final \u2014 she lost to Kim Clijsters at the Australian Open in January.<\/p>\n
Thinking back to that defeat, Li said: \u201cI had no experience. I was very nervous. For my second time in a final, I had the experience. I knew how to do it. And I had more self-confidence.\u201d<\/p>\n
She broke away from the Chinese government\u2019s sports system in late 2008 under an experimental reform policy for tennis players dubbed \u201cFly Alone.\u201d Li was given the freedom to choose her own coach and schedule and to keep much more of her earnings: Previously, she turned over 65 percent to the authorities; now it\u2019s 12 percent. That comes to about $205,000 of the $1.7 million French Open winner\u2019s check.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe took a lot of risks with this reform. When we let them fly, we didn\u2019t know if they would succeed. That they have now succeeded, means our reform was correct,\u201d said Sun Jinfang, an official with the Chinese Tennis Association. \u201cThis reform will serve as a good example for reforms in other sports.\u201d<\/p>\n
At her news conference, Li wore a new T-shirt with Chinese characters that mean \u201csport changes everything,\u201d and offered thanks to Sun.<\/p>\n
\u201cWithout her reform, then possibly we wouldn\u2019t have achieved this success,\u201d Li said.<\/p>\n
Li\u2019s tennis game, filled with flat forehands and backhands, looks better-built for hard courts, rather than the slow, red clay of Paris. Indeed, Li never had won a clay-court tournament until Saturday. She lost in the third round in three of her previous four French Opens, including against Schiavone a year ago. \/ap<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Paris\u00a0 \u2014 As Li Na tossed the ball while serving at match point in the French Open final, a cry from a fan in the stands pierced the silence at Court Philippe Chatrier. Distracted, Li stopped and let the ball drop. The words of support were in Mandarin: \u201cJia you!\u201d \u2014 which loosely translates to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1240,1227],"tags":[3873,407],"byline":[],"source":[],"column":[],"editor":[],"videographer":[],"position":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n