Li Beats Schiavone, 1st Asian Slam Winner

Great win for Li Na. I thought she was going to choke after having game points to take a commanding lead in the 2nd. There was a huge line Na serving at 4-5, 30 all. Na hit an inside out backhand winner down the line that was called out. The ump checked the mark and called it good. Schiavone argued it. It would have been set point for Schiavone. Who knows how things might have turned out.

June 4th, 2011 at 10:03 pm

Ha! love, love that first line, Staff. “The Revolution will not be Televised” Gil Scot-Herron is EPIC.

June 4th, 2011 at 10:32 pm

RIP for GSH, :( and meant to say congrats to Na Li!

June 4th, 2011 at 10:40 pm

Congratulations to Li Na for winning her first slam. I was rooting for her at AO but it wasn’t to be. After coming so close in January, this must be awfully sweet. Also, Rafa talked about the new balls, but their was no complaining.

June 4th, 2011 at 11:16 pm

Congratulations to Li Na!

This will surely open the floodgates for tennis in China and more broadly, Asia.

June 5th, 2011 at 1:17 am

Awesome for Li Na, hope she makes No.1 and makes the WTA exciting again!

June 5th, 2011 at 2:21 am

Haha.. an entire Women’s final with a new first time champion crowned and you guys can only manage 6 comments?

The men’s blog posts generate 300+ comments with live commenting during matches.

Shows how little WTA product is worth today. Did you guys even watch the final?

June 5th, 2011 at 1:37 pm

WTF,

You may want to check the ratings. I can assure you that more people watched the women’s final than the men’s, and that Li Na’s win probably gave the sport of Tennis its best viewership in a long, long time. ;) Actually do some research and you’ll see how many people tuned in from China alone. Most ratings estimates are in already and reported.

June 5th, 2011 at 3:58 pm

Oh wait, here is a good one. Use google translator or just use google search for English news articles, but media outlets show more than 1 billion, yes, billion viewers. Think with your brains, not your fingers!

http://sports.sina.com.cn/t/2011-06-05/15545607628.shtml

June 5th, 2011 at 4:01 pm

i’m so happy for na li. : )

allez! congratulations!

June 5th, 2011 at 4:29 pm

Yeah well that’s a market not represented on this blog site. Among the people here, it seems no one is interested.

Whenever you throw in China’s 1.2 billion population market it always skews things, especially when a chinese player is involved.

I’m guessing YOU didn’t watch the match Robbie?

June 5th, 2011 at 9:11 pm

Well done Li Na,

She was a whopping 33/1 odds just a week or so on the betting markets.
I wish I put some money on such a good price, as I did fancy her to do well especially given the player that she easily beat on her way to the final Azarenka was a very short 3/1 favourite.

Damn…..I doubt Li Na will ever be such generous odds ever again in finals!!

Just my luck!!

June 6th, 2011 at 4:41 pm

What an awful thing for such a player to win the fo…she is so limited a player and the heavy ball really fought against the skills of a true claycourter…li na is an interesting phenomenon…she quit the game for two years because she couldnt break into the top 100….maybe the powers of tennis wanted a chinese winner to open the market up? Either way she is even less talented than safina was…strewth! come back clisjsters and serena so we can watch girls who can really hit….worst moment in womens’ tennis in a long time…not a fan…she is utter mediocrity…29 winningt a slam>and nothing else hardly on wta?must be a record and an oddity.

June 8th, 2011 at 5:43 am