{"id":38409,"date":"2013-09-05T12:58:52","date_gmt":"2013-09-05T12:58:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tennis.ireneeng.com\/?p=38409"},"modified":"2014-02-01T00:26:20","modified_gmt":"2014-02-01T00:26:20","slug":"li-na-on-her-knees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tennis.ireneeng.com\/?p=38409","title":{"rendered":"Li Na on her knees"},"content":{"rendered":"

SCMP<\/a> by Agence France-Presse<\/p>\n

China\u2019s fiery tennis superstar Li Na heads into next week\u2019s US Open eyeing a second Grand Slam crown but with questions over her temperament mounting in Chinese media after two furious outbursts.<\/p>\n

Winning the 2011 French Open title sealed Li\u2019s place as the country\u2019s tennis darling as 116 million people at home tuned in to watch her become Asia\u2019s first Grand Slam singles champion.<\/p>\n

I lost a game and that\u2019s it. Do I need to get on my knees and kowtow to them? Apologise to them?
\nBut the world number six, now a veteran at 31, has developed a reputation as a prickly character in a nation where sports stars typically keep their emotions strictly in check after years in the rigid state sports training system.<\/p>\n

After her second-round exit at the French Open and her quarter-final defeat at Wimbledon, Li turned on Wang Zijiang of official news agency Xinhua when he asked if she had a message for fans back home.<\/p>\n

\u201cI lost a game and that\u2019s it. Do I need to get on my knees and kowtow to them? Apologise to them?\u201d she snapped in Paris.<\/p>\n

A month later at Wimbledon, he asked the same question again. \u201cHow dare he? Doesn\u2019t he have any shame?\u201d said Li, who trained as a journalist herself in her 20s.<\/p>\n

Her reaction prompted widespread denunciations on China\u2019s hugely popular microblogging sites. \u201cLosing the game is OK, you can win it next time. What you really need to improve is your courtesy and behaviour,\u201d said a poster with the username Dibayin.<\/p>\n

Li, who reached the final of this year\u2019s Australian Open, has developed an individualistic style not common in China since she opted out of government control in 2008, enabling her to choose her own coaches and keep most of her winnings.<\/p>\n

Her supporters have spoken before of the intense pressure she faces as China\u2019s only top tennis player, and her performance at tournaments is closely monitored by Chinese media, who are largely unfamiliar with dealing with athletes who confront aggressive questioning.<\/p>\n

Nonetheless her comments would be unusual for Western sports stars, who are often mindful of their image and the commercial endorsements that depend on it.<\/p>\n

Wang, a London-based sports reporter for Xinhua, said that her response had \u201cshocked\u201d him, and that she had \u201cdefinitely overreacted\u201d.<\/p>\n

Li was such a prominent figure in China and so important to most media outlets that she could often choose which questions to answer, he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany can only ask questions which please her, and this allows Li Na to confront the media and gives her a feeling of looking down on them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cLi Na has been spoiled in this media environment. When she answers to the media, she is not professional, she really is childish.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd being faced with direct questions from Xinhua \u2013 whose purpose is not to gain attention and improve newspaper sales \u2013 her sensitive self-esteem cannot cope.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zhang Rongfeng, one of Xinhua\u2019s top sports commentary writers, said Li had a \u201cweakness of character\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen she wins a game, she has a better attitude and is nice to the media. But if she loses, she transfers her bad temper from the tennis court,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

It is a far cry from the heroine-worship of 2011, when Li was praised as a pioneer for Chinese tennis after her victory at Roland Garros, widely considered to have helped the sport become the third most watched in the country.<\/p>\n

She defied Chinese convention by getting a tattoo \u2013 a red rose \u2013 on her chest and earlier this year graced the cover of Time magazine, in which US tennis legend Chris Evert praised her as a \u201cmaverick\u201d.<\/p>\n

But her outspoken views have sparked controversy before, most notably when she claimed she was not \u201chere for the country\u201d in a tournament last year.<\/p>\n

The \u201cself v country\u201d row played out on Chinese social media resulted in a widely reposted internet rumour that authorities in her hometown of Wuhan were to remove a bronze statue of her from the local \u201cWalk of Fame\u201d.<\/p>\n

But some Chinese reporters say the media should respect Li\u2019s personality.<\/p>\n

\u201cBoth sides need to step back a little bit to see the picture here because Li Na is the one player we have who is capable of doing great in tournaments,\u201d said Liu Renjie, who covers tennis for Sina, one of China\u2019s top internet news portals, and has interviewed her on many occasions.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes we need to maybe take it easy, and not put so much pressure or criticism on her so we can ease the tension.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SCMP by Agence France-Presse China\u2019s fiery tennis superstar Li Na heads into next week\u2019s US Open eyeing a second Grand Slam crown but with questions over her temperament mounting in Chinese media after two furious outbursts. Winning the 2011 French Open title sealed Li\u2019s place as the country\u2019s tennis darling as 116 million people at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[50],"class_list":["post-38409","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-musing","tag-li-na"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.ireneeng.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38409","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.ireneeng.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.ireneeng.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.ireneeng.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.ireneeng.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=38409"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.ireneeng.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38409\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.ireneeng.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=38409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.ireneeng.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=38409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.ireneeng.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=38409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}