Two weeks ago as the tournament got underway, the women’s field was as wide open as it ever has been. No Serena or Venus, no Justine, Kim bounced out early. Any one of a dozen or more players could have won and we all just had to watch the action unfold and see which way the wind eventually blew.
Few thought Francesca Schiavone, the defending champion, would get to the final today or hoist the trophy for a second year. Few thought she’d ever win it once, or any other Grand Slam. She nearly didn’t make it as she looked down the long lonely barrel of the rifle in her quarterfinal match against Pavlyuchenkova, down a set and 4-1. So for her to take the court today was at least a little surprising and a testament to her clay court skills and fighting spirit.
Across the net, a woman no one thought could play on clay, including her. Growing up in China, her parents didn’t even know what tennis was and there weren’t any clay courts, that’s for sure. Today at least 30 million Chinese watched at 9 PM Beijing time as Li Na took the court for the final of the French Open.
Li has a new coach and he has encouraged her in this direction. He must have known something because Li has done well in Madrid and Rome before coming to Paris. Her former coach left her to work with Maria Sharapova, so it had to feel just a little extra good when she beat her the other day. Li Na’s husband was her coach until recently but after the Australian Open she fired him and that seems to have been a good decision. Now he can just be a husband. Much better.
Li reached the finals of the Australian Open end of January and she played a three setter against Kim Cliijsters. It was her first Grand Slam final, she lost, but she learned. Today she knew how to be, how to play, and as it turned out, how to win.
You could learn a lot about tennis from the match they played. Li’s game is a power game, she’s strong off both wings and she hits flat and hard deep into the court, often the corners. Francesca’s game is to get to net as much as possible, where she is very adept at put away shots, and to throw out a variety of shots and spins to keep her opponent guessing, and, importantly, running. Li was so dialed into her game for the first set, she utterly deprived Francesca of the chance to play hers. Most of the set, and most of the match, Li dictated while Francesca reacted.
Li never seemed nervous. She was ready for the stage and for the win. In the second set she had chances to go up a double break practically insuring the victory, but Francesca fought back and started to be able to play her game as Li started to miss and began to feel nerves.
It was great to see Francesca come to life. She very nearly got back into the match and if she had won the second set, who knows what a one set winner takes all scenario would have looked like. But in the tiebreak that decided the second set, Li just played brilliantly, shots with depth but also cat and mouse encounters and odd shots that required improvisation. She played like a clay courter a bit, and she won the tiebreak without giving away a single point, 7-0.
As Francesca’s shot went long on the last point, Li slid and fell to the clay. It was over. She was and is the new champion, the first Chinese person, man or woman, to win a Grand Slam title.
You think they’re going to build clay courts in China now? People have talked for awhile about an imminent explosion of interest in tennis in China and surely that’s here now. Ten years from now all the kids who are going to start playing in China these days because they are inspired by Li Na, we’ll be seeing their names at the top of the game. If you sell tennis racquets and have an entree into the Chinese market, chances are good you’re going to take some very nice vacations very soon.
Both of these players are likeable, so whichever of them had won it, it was going to be a happy thing. After the ceremony, after the photo shoot and on-court interviews, finally Li Na got her gear and waved to the remaining people in the stands, walking out the door from which she had entered three hours earlier. Ball kids carried the all white huge bouquet of flowers that each of the players received before they came on court and all of the ball kids were lined up on both sides of the hallway and stairs, clapping, as the new champion smiled and descended a flight of stairs into the locker room.
One more match tomorrow and how bad can that be? Federer vs. Nadal. Have at it, boys.
And on a final note today. What a bungled deal that whole thing was this week with Fabio Fognini, the Italian player who beat Albert Montanes in the round of sixteen. He had leg cramps during play and in the middle of a game received treatment. It was the chair umpire who went out of her chair and on to the court to say whatever she said and after that play stopped. You are not supposed to receive treatment for leg cramps, in the middle of a game or on a changeover. So I don’t know why the umpire did what she did. And funnily enough, she was the one who officiated the final today.
Then, it turned out that more was wrong and the doctor for the tournament weighed in by saying Fognini probably shouldn’t play for a couple of weeks. But before that, he withdrew from the tournament, his decision, rather than wait a day or so to see if it got better and then decide if he was well enough to play, and his camp apparently said he decided not to play because it was Djokovic he would face. Maybe if it had been someone else he would have tried, but Djokovic? He was saying why bother, I’m going to lose. I had thought he felt bad to miss the opportunity but apparently not. He’s no Francesca Schiavone. That’s a little too lazy and spineless for my taste.
Enjoy the final match wherever you are. More from Cupcakes and Tennis tomorrow and thanks for reading.
