Li Na’s landmark French Open victory sparked celebrations and recognition throughout China on Sunday, while China’s state media told its athletes to learn from her as they prepare for the London Olympics. “She is now the pride of Asia,” said retired Thai player Paradorn Srichaphan.Li’s victory over defending champion Francesca Schiavone on Saturday came in Beijing on a holiday weekend, but Chinese state television rebroadcast the match Sunday and it was on the front pages of most newspapers.
People’s Daily, the flagship paper of the ruling Communist Party, put a large color photo of Li kissing her trophy at the top of its front page under the headline “Li Na Reached the Summit of the Grand Slam.”
Chinese sports officials publicly congratulated each other in an apparent effort to link the government to the victory, even though Li trains independently. The Chinese Olympic Committee and other agencies expressed “heartfelt congratulations” in a joint letter to the government’s Tennis Sports Management Center, according to the state Xinhua News Agency.
Elsewhere in Asia, the victory was front-page news in Japan and Hong Kong, though tennis has only a small regional following and celebratory sentiment might be dampened by unease at China’s rising military might and a series of political strains with its neighbors.
In Japan, which Beijing sees as a rival for regional leadership, news media celebrated Li’s victory as an Asian first. The giant Yomiuri newspaper ran a front-page photo of her with her trophy. “First from Asia,” said a headline in the Asahi newspaper.
In Taiwan, the self-ruled island that Beijing claims as its own territory, Li’s victory was the top story in the newspaper United Daily News, under the headline, “In the French Women’s singles Li Na is Crowned Empress.”
The head of the Chinese tennis federation was quoted at the time as comparing Li to Houston Rockets center Yao Ming and Olympic champion hurdler Liu Xiang, until now China’s best-known international athletes.
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