Li Na's charge to the Australian Open women's singles final has struck a patriotic chord among Chinese citizens, her feats in Melbourne proving once again how interwoven sports and national pride are in China.
Li, affectionately called "Big Sister Na" and "golden flower" in China, has a chance to become her country's first grand slam singles champion following a surprise sem-final win over world number one Caroline Wozniacki on Thursday.
Third seeded Belgian Kim Clijsters goes into Saturday's final as favourite to capture a fourth grand slam title, but Li, seeded ninth, has already surpassed expectations by just reaching the decider.
For many young people in the Chinese capital Beijing, the 28-year-old Li is a role model, with her steely determination and good English emblematic of a confident and rising China.
"She's not just representing herself, she's representing China's pride and hopes," 18-year-old high school student Li Yan said on Friday.
"Because the development of tennis has been lagging in China, I think her winning will give us influence on the world stage."
In a shopping mall in the west of Beijing, clothing designer Zhang Ying, 28, said seeing Li Na perform well had inspired her to start playing tennis.
"She played brilliantly yesterday (on Thursday)," Zhang said. "I think she has an 80 percent chance of winning but even if she loses, number two is not bad."
Many state newspapers plastered Li's picture on their front pages. The official China Sports Daily proclaimed in its headline: "China's tennis advances to a new peak."
Even the usually staid Communist Party mouthpiece the People's Daily praised her.
"Off the court, Li's performance is also very compelling. In the past, including the top players in China and Asia, most of them gave the impression of being introverted, shy and dull," it wrote in a commentary.
"But Li Na, in the several games and press conferences in this Australian Open... was able to fluently speak in English, and display her bright, outspoken, wise and humourous personality, winning the goodwill of fans and the media."
On Thursday, state television interrupted programming on its main news channel to show live pictures of Li's semi-final match in Melbourne.
RACIAL PRIDE
Li's win has also sparked an outpouring of pride among Internet users and was the hottest topic on Tianya.cn, China's most popular Internet chatroom, with users calling her a symbol of "New China".
China has a history of placing enormous expectations on athletes who have reached international acclaim and each live broadcast is usually viewed as a barometer of global standing or racial pride.
In 2008, when defending champion Liu Xiang was forced to drop out of the 110-metres hurdles at the Beijing Olympics due to an injury, his withdrawal was met with tears, anger and accusations that the athlete had let the nation down.
"Li Na counts as the number one Asian tennis player now," said 17-year-old high school student Zhang Xin. "I feel very proud for her because she is Chinese and I'm Chinese. Yesterday, she didn't give up and was determined to fight till the end."
For many, Li's win was also proof that the Chinese could shine in sports traditionally dominated by the West.
"Tennis is for the rich especially in the West, and is hugely influential. In China... the influence of Li Na exceeds 50 golds in the Olympic Games," said one user on Sina.com's Weibo, China's Twitter-like microblogging service.
"A real Li Na is much better than 10 fake propaganda shows."
Wuhan-born Li is among a handful of top women players whose success in an individual game inevitably conflicted with their country's Soviet-style sports system. .
Shortly after returning to training from two years out of the game, she won her country's first WTA tour title on home soil in Guangzhou and two years later was in the quarter-finals at Wimbledon.
"There is always a pioneer pushing things forward in his or her time and Li is a sporting pioneer of her time," China's tennis chief Sun Jinfang was quoted by China Daily as saying.
"She has been undervalued a little bit due to the relatively low-profile of tennis China" she said, "I think she has an international standing similar to (NBA player) Yao Ming or Liu Xiang."
Li, affectionately called "Big Sister Na" and "golden flower" in China, has a chance to become her country's first grand slam singles champion following a surprise sem-final win over world number one Caroline Wozniacki on Thursday.
Third seeded Belgian Kim Clijsters goes into Saturday's final as favourite to capture a fourth grand slam title, but Li, seeded ninth, has already surpassed expectations by just reaching the decider.
For many young people in the Chinese capital Beijing, the 28-year-old Li is a role model, with her steely determination and good English emblematic of a confident and rising China.
"She's not just representing herself, she's representing China's pride and hopes," 18-year-old high school student Li Yan said on Friday.
"Because the development of tennis has been lagging in China, I think her winning will give us influence on the world stage."
In a shopping mall in the west of Beijing, clothing designer Zhang Ying, 28, said seeing Li Na perform well had inspired her to start playing tennis.
"She played brilliantly yesterday (on Thursday)," Zhang said. "I think she has an 80 percent chance of winning but even if she loses, number two is not bad."
Many state newspapers plastered Li's picture on their front pages. The official China Sports Daily proclaimed in its headline: "China's tennis advances to a new peak."
Even the usually staid Communist Party mouthpiece the People's Daily praised her.
"Off the court, Li's performance is also very compelling. In the past, including the top players in China and Asia, most of them gave the impression of being introverted, shy and dull," it wrote in a commentary.
"But Li Na, in the several games and press conferences in this Australian Open... was able to fluently speak in English, and display her bright, outspoken, wise and humourous personality, winning the goodwill of fans and the media."
On Thursday, state television interrupted programming on its main news channel to show live pictures of Li's semi-final match in Melbourne.
RACIAL PRIDE
Li's win has also sparked an outpouring of pride among Internet users and was the hottest topic on Tianya.cn, China's most popular Internet chatroom, with users calling her a symbol of "New China".
China has a history of placing enormous expectations on athletes who have reached international acclaim and each live broadcast is usually viewed as a barometer of global standing or racial pride.
In 2008, when defending champion Liu Xiang was forced to drop out of the 110-metres hurdles at the Beijing Olympics due to an injury, his withdrawal was met with tears, anger and accusations that the athlete had let the nation down.
"Li Na counts as the number one Asian tennis player now," said 17-year-old high school student Zhang Xin. "I feel very proud for her because she is Chinese and I'm Chinese. Yesterday, she didn't give up and was determined to fight till the end."
For many, Li's win was also proof that the Chinese could shine in sports traditionally dominated by the West.
"Tennis is for the rich especially in the West, and is hugely influential. In China... the influence of Li Na exceeds 50 golds in the Olympic Games," said one user on Sina.com's Weibo, China's Twitter-like microblogging service.
"A real Li Na is much better than 10 fake propaganda shows."
Wuhan-born Li is among a handful of top women players whose success in an individual game inevitably conflicted with their country's Soviet-style sports system. .
Shortly after returning to training from two years out of the game, she won her country's first WTA tour title on home soil in Guangzhou and two years later was in the quarter-finals at Wimbledon.
"There is always a pioneer pushing things forward in his or her time and Li is a sporting pioneer of her time," China's tennis chief Sun Jinfang was quoted by China Daily as saying.
"She has been undervalued a little bit due to the relatively low-profile of tennis China" she said, "I think she has an international standing similar to (NBA player) Yao Ming or Liu Xiang."
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