1Li Na (b. 1982), Chinese tennis player, two-time Grand Slam singles champion (2011 French Open, 2014 Australian Open) — the first Asian player to win a major singles title
After retirement, Li Na devoted herself to promoting tennis.
Tips
culture
Li's 2011 French Open final against Schiavone was watched live by an estimated 116 million viewers in China — at the time the largest tennis audience in history. Her blunt press-conference humor broke with the usual PRC-athlete script and made her a favorite of Western reporters.
history
She was one of the first Chinese athletes allowed to break from the state system under the '单飞' (solo flight) reform, keeping most of her prize money in exchange for paying her own coaches — the template many later Chinese tennis players followed.
