A couple more Li Na items before we get into Olympic season… A video doing the rounds shows Li being slapped by a local sports official back at the National Games in 2001.
Tag Archives: Australian Open
李娜已练出一颗“大心脏”
李娜在周六获得澳网桂冠的时候，其实她的状态并不是最好的。幸运的是，她不需要达到最佳状态就足以击败紧张的齐布尔科娃，在第三次杀入澳网决赛后终于首次获得这一大满贯头衔。
Li Na provides perfect retort to former boss
A simplistic view often peddled in the western press is that the rebellious Li Na, tattoo and all, broke free of the state-run system when she and three others decided to “fly solo” in 2008. Under the new arrangement, the players could choose their own support team, arrange their own schedule and – crucially – keep the vast majority of their prize money instead of forking it over to the Chinese Tennis Association.
Continue reading Li Na provides perfect retort to former boss
Awesome childhood photos of Li Na
A new post on what Li Na’s Australian Open win could mean for her career both on and off the court will be up tomorrow, but in the meantime, here are some pictures doing the rounds on the Chinese internet of the country’s biggest sports star in her (very) formative years…
Li Na & sponsors hoping for Australian Open history
Will it be third time lucky for Li Na at the Australian Open? A dominant semifinal performance saw Li put Canada’s rising star Genie Bouchard firmly in her place, racing to a 5-0 first set lead in just 14 minutes, before cruising to a 6-2, 6-4 win.
Li will play Dominika Cibulkova – Slovakia’s first Grand Slam finalist – on Saturday evening in Melbourne and will start as the heavy favorite in her third Australian Open final in four years, against an opponent she’s never lost to in four matches. But in a tournament full of upsets, who’s to say there won’t be one more? Continue reading Li Na & sponsors hoping for Australian Open history
Li, Zheng progress, Peng Shuai ignored [UPDATED]
Li Na cruised through to the third round of the Australian Open on Wednesday with a 6-0, 7-6 win over Swiss teenager Belinda Bencic, while Zheng Jie had a tougher battle, eventually downing American Madison Keys 7-6,1-6, 7-5. But for all the talk about China’s new generation of tennis players (here and elsewhere), Li and Zheng were the only two to make it out of the first round – from the eight who made the main draw.
Continue reading Li, Zheng progress, Peng Shuai ignored [UPDATED]
Mixed fortunes for China at Australian Open
China had a record eight players in the singles draw for the Australian Open. Of the five who played on Day 1, there were wins for Li Na (vs 16-year-old Croatian Ana Konjuh) and Zheng Jie (vs 12th seed Roberta Vinci), while wildcard playoff winners Wu Di and Tang Haochen both lost, as did Zhang Shuai, who had ended 2013 so well.
Continue reading Mixed fortunes for China at Australian Open
Chinese male nets return to Australian Open
Chinese tennis player Wu Di, who made history earlier this year by becoming the first Chinese man to play in a Grand Slam tournament, has qualified for next year’s tournament via the same process – by winning the Asia-Pacific wildcard playoff. The 22-year-old has not, by his own admission, had a good year, but said this gives him focus for the future. Wu also qualified for this year’s tournament, but lost in the first round to Croatia’s Ivan Dodig in four sets.
Continue reading Chinese male nets return to Australian Open
Li Na faces toughest test of her career
Li Na has just made it though to her first ever US Open semifinal, with a 6-4, 6-7, 6-2 victory over the 24th seed Ekatarina Makarova from Russia. It also means a Chinese woman has reached at least the semifinals in all four Grand Slam tournaments (after Li and Zheng Jie in Australia, Li at Roland Garros, and Zheng at Wimbledon). The result should finally consign last week’s drugs “scandal” to history.
But now the real fun begins.
Li Na on course to be world’s highest earning female athlete
Saturday’s Australian Open women’s tennis final will be an all-Nike affair as Li Na faces off against Victoria Azarenka. Nothing particularly unusual there, given that the US sportswear giant also sponsors Maria Sharapova and Serena Williams. But Nike won’t quite have it all its own way.
That’s because Li Na has a deal – unique among Nike’s stable of tennis superstars that also includes Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer – that allows her to have two other brands on her shirt in addition to the Nike swoosh. Those two? The well-known car company Mercedes-Benz, and the less well-known insurance company Taikang Life.
With Li leading the way, Mercedes has projected that China will be its biggest market by 2015, so paying $4.5 million to get the company’s logo on Li’s right sleeve for three years would seem to be money well spent.
Continue reading Li Na on course to be world’s highest earning female athlete