Yaoyao: How Much Does Li Na Really Hate This System? | Zheng Qinwen Wins the Championship — Why Did CCTV Humiliate Her?

This episode is presented by Yao Yao Jiang, delving into the long-standing struggle and compromise between Chinese tennis star Li Na and the national sports system. From Li Na's decision to retire in 2002 due to physical and management issues, to her comeback, the push for the "fly solo" policy in 2008, and her victory in two Grand Slam titles, the program meticulously examines the enormous price she paid amidst systemic oppression, questioning of her training, and the battle for honors, revealing the profound contradictions of China's state-sponsored sports system.

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Hello everyone, I am Yao Yao Jiang, who loves to think and values logic. On October 11, Hubei girl Zheng Qinwen lifted the women's singles championship trophy at the China Open. During the CCTV live broadcast of this final, commentator Zhang Sheng talked about the "patriotism" of Chinese tennis players. He listed a string of names but did not mention Li Na or Peng Shuai. No, but Li Fang was already... then it reached this, including Zheng Jie, Yan Zi, then Zhang Shuai, and then Zheng Qinwen. Not mentioning Peng Shuai, everyone can understand, because of that business between her and Zhang Gaoli, but why didn't he mention Li Na? Li Na has won two Grand Slam titles, and Zheng Qinwen has also publicly stated that it was Li Na who gave her the dream of winning a Grand Slam. Chinese tennis, as it stands today, cannot bypass this name. Today, we will start from the struggle and compromise between Li Na and China's state-sponsored system to see why Li Na hated this system so much, and why they are so unwelcoming to this outstanding tennis player.

In 2002, Li Na decided to leave the national team. She left a retirement application in her dormitory, placing her tennis racquet on the desk to weigh down the paper. While her teammates went out for training, she grabbed a simple piece of luggage, rushed to the airport, and caught a flight back to Wuhan. Once home, she turned off her phone and refused to answer calls. This experience was later recorded in her autobiography, *Single Woman*. That year, she was only 20 years old. Having played tennis since childhood, she had already achieved success domestically and still had the opportunity to step onto the international stage. Now, she was prepared to give up this path. At the time, the national team was preparing for the 2002 Asian Games. According to her own recollection, under long-term pressure, she suffered from endocrine disorders and developed an allergy to the hormone medications used for treatment. Her health had not recovered, and she could not keep up with the training volume. The invited doctor also stated that her physical condition was not ideal. Her body was already experiencing problems, yet the leaders still demanded that the doctor give her injections and make her continue competing. She called her mother. Her mother's stance was clear: if playing tennis harmed her health, she should come back. Her daughter's decades of life ahead were more important than the match right in front of them. Consequently, Li Na left. Later, some people turned this retirement into a romance story, claiming that the team would not let her play mixed doubles with Jiang Shan, so she got angry and quit. This narrative spread easily and conveniently, shifting the blame back onto her: a capricious young girl who delayed her career for a relationship. In her autobiography, Li Na stated that the main reason for her retirement was health issues, though the separation of her mixed doubles partner also had an impact. That unpleasant experience left her disappointed with the team's management style. A year earlier, at the 2001 National Games, she and Jiang Shan had originally been long-term mixed doubles partners, but after registering, they were rearranged without prior notice. To the team, it was about recombining athletes to strive for match results; to those actually stepping onto the court, they did not even have the chance to participate in the discussion. Mixed doubles partners could certainly be adjusted, but the problem lay in why the coaches made the adjustment, how the new combinations would cooperate, and what thoughts the players had—these originally belonged to professional communication. Yet under that management relationship, as long as the leaders deemed it appropriate, the athletes had to accept it. The leaders could decide who paired with whom and whether training could stop when someone felt unwell, but the ones actually stepping onto the court to compete and enduring injuries were the athletes. The Chinese sports system loved to talk about sacrifice. But who had the right to decide on sacrifice, and who was paying the price? The leaders could demand that she persevere until the end of the competition, but she had to bear the lasting impact of her injuries herself. This time, Li Na decided to quit the national team and no longer continue training and competing. The cost was also immense; she had to leave the life she was most familiar with, put down the profession she had worked hard to train in, and find a new path. A 20-year-old girl used the method of withdrawing from the entire arena just to give her body a rest. Her body had problems, and she should have been able to receive treatment and adjust her training within the team. Yet she ultimately chose retirement. This was a failure of management and could not be blamed solely on her unwillingness to persevere.

Li Na returned to Wuhan, and Jiang Shan had also left the team. In September 2002, the two entered Huazhong University of Science and Technology to study journalism. She later explained that she knew the hardships athletes faced and hoped to one day become a sports reporter to speak up for them. After leaving the team, she wanted to try work outside of tennis. However, the Hubei team came to persuade her to make a comeback. After returning to university, Li Na's life began to feature things that had previously been difficult to obtain. Going to class, finishing class, going shopping with Jiang Shan, and watching a movie at night. She occasionally represented the school in matches and would practice tennis, but she could decide for herself how long to practice. At university, playing tennis was no longer a daily mandatory task. She could practice according to her own wishes. The Hubei team hoped she would make a comeback to participate in the 2005 National Games. Teammates came to persuade her, and coaches and leaders also came to persuade her. Li Na had already suffered a loss once and was not enthusiastic about these persuasions.

The turning point came in 2003. Sun Jinfang came to find her. Sun Jinfang was the former captain of the women's national volleyball team and was serving as the director of the Tennis Management Center of the General Administration of Sport of China at the time. According to Li Na's recollection, the two met in Wuhan. Sun Jinfang did not start by talking about collective tasks; instead, she first asked what Li Na was doing, what she wanted to do in the future, and then talked about her tennis talent. During the conversation, Sun Jinfang told her that she could "play for herself." Li Na was moved by these words. The demands she had heard in the past usually revolved around what the team needed and what must be accomplished in competitions. This time, a manager was actually willing to talk about her own future. She did not agree on the spot; her body had just recovered, she did not want to give up her studies, and if she returned to the team, would she walk the same path again? She considered it for several months and finally decided to make a comeback. In January 2004, she returned to the Hubei provincial team. This time, she also made a compromise; Hubei had cultivated her, and she was willing to repay them with concrete help by playing one more National Games for Hubei. Her comeback still relied on the provincial team to provide training conditions and competition opportunities, and she had not yet established her own professional team at the time. Whether she was willing to return required negotiation between both sides; this time, the team also had to listen to what she thought. By 2004, Li Na won the WTA tour singles title in Guangzhou, becoming the first Chinese player to achieve this result. Two years after leaving, she quickly proved that she still had the ability to continue moving up. When she won the title in Guangzhou, she had not yet gone independent. The provincial team's training helped her lay a technical foundation, but as she began to participate in more international competitions, training and competition arrangements also needed to be adjusted. Players who have already entered the professional tour need to arrange training according to their own technical characteristics and physical condition. If managers still require everyone to obey the same plan, it may hinder the players' continued progress.

Speaking of cultivation, we can look at an American tennis school that Li Na visited when she was young. When she was a teenager, with the support of Nike, she went to the Newcombe Tennis Academy in Texas for training. This did not immediately give her an easy teenage life; she later recalled the difficulties of the language barrier and homesickness, but this school showed another path for cultivating athletes. In addition to arranging tennis training, this school now also arranges academic courses for students and helps them apply to universities. Children can choose schools or other learning methods according to different situations, and coaches and college counselors help them find university programs that match their academic and tennis levels. If they play well, they can continue to pursue the professional circuit, or they can strive for university tennis team spots and scholarship opportunities. Becoming a professional player should not be the only way out for children practicing tennis. In China, Li Na had to quit the tennis team to go to college, and only then did she have the opportunity to ask herself again what kind of life she wanted to live. However, this opportunity should have been seriously considered when she was being cultivated. Women's professional tennis also has specific restrictions on the number of tournaments minor players can participate in. The WTA began to make phased arrangements for minor players entering professional events in 1995, and today, its public projects still emphasize learning, health, rest, and schedule management. Limiting the number of matches is to allow young players time to learn, train, and rest, and to gradually adapt to professional competition. Even with talent, one should not take on too heavy a competition load too early. The national team manages the training and life of athletes and should also listen to their opinions on injuries and training arrangements. After Li Na raised these issues, the manager's response was directly related to whether she could continue to play well. After her comeback, she quickly ran into this problem again, and this time, the person responding to her was none other than Sun Jinfang, who had once told her that she could play for herself.

At the 2005 National Games, Li Na lost to Peng Shuai in the women's singles semifinals. After the match, she criticized the national team's training and management. According to her description, a coach would set a training plan, and many players would have to adapt to it together; those who could not adapt had difficulty getting targeted help. She believed that she had not achieved the expected progress over the past year and was also dissatisfied with the way coaches and players interacted. She also talked about the distribution of prize money, hoping that performance and prize money could be more directly linked. In October 2005, a reporter from the China Youth Daily interviewed Sun Jinfang. She said that Li Na did not see the price paid by the state to cultivate athletes and only compared herself with foreign players, showing "low ideological level and low moral quality," and that her sense of responsibility and mission was also poor. She also interpreted Li Na's concern for prize money as a lack of responsibility to win glory for the country. As for the Beijing Olympics, Sun Jinfang declared at the time: with Li Na's professional quality, she would not be able to represent China in three years. Li Na questioned the training and prize money distribution, but Sun Jinfang accused her of having poor ideology and morals, and even threatened her Olympic eligibility. This turned a professional debate into a loyalty review. Sun Jinfang did not deny Li Na's technical ability. However, as long as Li Na publicly criticized the management, she could be deprived of the opportunity to represent the country. Who represents China? Does it mainly depend on the player's ability and competition rules, or does it depend on whether she has satisfied the director? Once managers tie the two things together, every time an athlete raises an opinion, they have to weigh their own future first.

Li Na did not continue to stand her ground until the end. In November 2005, the Oriental Morning Post published a report. According to Sun Jinfang, Li Na had already sought out national team head coach Jiang Hongwei to offer a self-criticism. Sun Jinfang also attributed Li Na's previous public criticisms to her mind going blank under immense pressure. The report also noted that on November 1, the national team began training in Jiangmen. The first week did not involve tennis practice; instead, they adopted a corporate employee training approach, organizing a week of team-building exercises. Sun Jinfang stated this was to address the professional quality issues of the women's tennis team members. The report linked Li Na's transformation to this training, with the headline: "Offering Self-Criticism to Head Coach Jiang Hongwei, Sun Jinfang Successfully 'Co-opts' Li Na." This "co-option" meant that Sun Jinfang had made Li Na, who had publicly criticized the national team, accept management once again. Li Na's return to the team and her self-criticism were treated as the director's management achievement; however, the report did not address whether the training and bonus systems should be reformed. One of the reasons Sun Jinfang previously criticized Li Na was that the state had invested training funds to cultivate her. But training funds come from public investment, and the salaries of managers also come from public investment. Athletes who receive training opportunities can give back to society through competitions and public activities, but this does not mean a director can count taxpayers' money as a personal favor bestowed upon them, and then demand that athletes repay it with silence. Li Na also dedicated years of training and competition, bearing the burden of injuries. The state invested funds, but the athletes also invested time and labor; one cannot only count the money the state paid. Even more absurdly, if coaches and managers always represent the state, and an athlete can be accused of being ungrateful for criticizing a training session once, then where is the pressure for coaches to improve? Are coaches always right? Sports management under the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) conflates winning glory for the country with obeying leadership. Sun Jinfang's criticism of Li Na was using national cultivation, a sense of responsibility, and a sense of mission to demand she accept the existing arrangements. If athletes cannot even openly discuss training and bonuses, how can managers be subject to supervision? Li Na did eventually participate in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, reaching the women's singles semifinals. Sun Jinfang's words in 2005 did not become a final ban, but the deterrent effect they had at the time did not disappear. She continued to compete. After the Beijing Olympics, the national team's management methods began to adjust, and only then did she gain more autonomy.

At the end of 2008, there was a change in Chinese women's tennis: Li Na, Zheng Jie, Peng Shuai, and Yan Zi could arrange their professional careers in a new way. Starting from the 2009 season, they no longer participated in unified national team training camps as they had in the past, but instead arranged their own training and professional competitions more independently. The media called this change "going solo." For Li Na, the most direct change was that she could find her own coaches, organize her team, and arrange professional tournaments around her own condition. Previously, more than half of her prize money was turned over to the team; after the reform, this dropped to around ten percent. However, she also had to bear more of the costs for team salaries, training, travel, and competition expenses. Under the previous arrangement, the team covered many expenses while also holding much of the decision-making power. Now, she regained more income and choices, but simultaneously had to bear the risks of choosing the wrong people, performing poorly in matches, and having insufficient income. This step was very difficult. Today, when we see a mature star's team, we feel it is normal for coaches, fitness trainers, and agents to follow her to competitions, but for Li Na, who had just started managing her own professional career, every additional person meant an additional expense she had to pay herself. In addition to training and competition, she also had to pay salaries, arrange travel, and ensure the team could continue to work. However, she was willing to bear these costs. In the past, how she trained and whether she could rest when her body was uncomfortable were restricted by the team's arrangements. Now, she could hire her own coaches and decide on training and competitions based on her own condition. Although team expenses increased, she chose the people herself, and if a collaboration was not suitable, it could be adjusted. Later, it was precisely by changing coaches that she solved problems in her matches. After going solo, she still had some obligations to the national team and domestic competitions. According to the arrangements made public at the time, her professional schedule still had to be submitted, and she could still be adjusted for national team competitions such as the Fed Cup and the Asian Games. Her relationship with the Hubei team was also retained, and future domestic competitions and activities would still require coordination.

Then why was Sun Jinfang finally willing to let them go solo? First, let's look at how she rejected Peng Shuai back then. In January 2006, Peng Shuai wanted to secure funding to arrange her own training. Sun Jinfang demanded that she first sign a pledge guaranteeing an Olympic gold medal, and stated that the financial allocations received by the Tennis Management Center were based on the 2008 Beijing Olympics. She wanted a dedicated coach and training suited to herself, but the director demanded she guarantee an Olympic gold medal first. How the national team distributed training resources was arranged primarily around the mission of the Beijing Olympics, and players' own professional careers had to rank behind this mission. By 2008, after the Beijing Olympics concluded, the reform finally had the opportunity to be implemented. In an interview that year, Sun Jinfang said that the more primary reasons for promoting going solo were the conclusion of the Beijing Olympics cycle and the achievements and influence the Chinese women's tennis team had accumulated previously in international competitions. Another condition had changed: these players already had commercial value. In 2011, in an interview with China Newsweek, Sun Jinfang explicitly stated that they could support themselves, whereas previously they could not. She also admitted that she had considered reform as early as 2006. The conflicts between Li Na, Peng Shuai, and the system made her increasingly clear that the original management methods were no longer applicable. This explains why the first to be released were those players who had already achieved international success. They had the opportunity to sustain their teams through prize money and commercial cooperation, and the national team was willing to let them arrange more of things themselves. After delegating power, the national team also reduced its expenses. At the end of 2008, national team head coach Li Jihai said in an interview that the portion of expenses borne by the state had decreased a lot, but athletes still had national competition obligations and still had to turn over a portion of their income. The management center made them bear more professional expenses while retaining the power to demand they represent the country in competitions. Therefore, this delegation of power had very specific conditions: the task of the Beijing Olympics had ended, players had the ability to independently manage their professional careers, and the management center could not only reduce expenses but also split the athletes' prize money while retaining the requirement for national competitions. The athletes' struggles pushed forward the reform, and managers also accepted the new arrangements after these conditions changed. Sun Jinfang later described the changes in management methods very clearly: previously, leaders gave orders downward, but later it shifted to consultation, communication, and "contractual management." Training, matches, and the obligations of both parties could finally be determined through discussion, and athletes also had the opportunity to express their opinions. But let us not forget that as early as 2005, when Li Na compared her own arrangements with those of foreign players, she was criticized for her ideology and morality. A few years later, the managers themselves admitted that the old methods conflicted with professionalization. So why did the person who raised the question back then have to be scolded first, threatened, and forced to write a self-criticism before waiting for the change in management style? In evaluating this reform, one cannot only talk about what decisions the leaders made, but also what price athletes paid to win these changes. Li Na did not therefore deny what Sun Jinfang did later. Sun Jinfang's promotion of her comeback and the delegation of power—these specific helps she remembered. A person who once suppressed her and later gave her a chance—both things can be true. And the subsequent matches would subject this question to the most direct test. Where would Li Na, who could make her own decisions, ultimately take her professional career?

In 2011, Li Na advanced to the women's singles final at the Australian Open, eventually losing to Kim Clijsters. She was already very close to a Grand Slam title, but upon returning to the tour, she suffered consecutive first-round exits in several tournaments. Having just won the Australian Open runner-up trophy and subsequently losing match after match, she needed to find a solution. She decided to change her coach. The coach at the time was Jiang Shan. Her husband accompanied her in training and travel and had always supported her, but she needed to try new coaching methods, so she rearranged the team's work. Li Na brought in Danish coach Michael Mortensen. She mentioned in an interview at the time that she needed confidence and someone she could communicate with. One change Mortensen brought was allowing her to admit that she would make mistakes. She did not have to negate her entire self because of a single error. Later, when she advanced to the French Open final, in an interview she spoke about her trust in Mortensen. Meanwhile, whether the cooperation between the two would continue had to be discussed after the French Open, because the coach also had a family and needed to discuss how many weeks he could travel with her. A coach could demand strict requirements, but these requirements had to explain how they would help her improve. She could propose that something was unsuitable, change the arrangement, or change person when necessary. A coach's authority comes from professional competence and mutual trust. In the national team, if she offered opinions on training, it would invite the director's criticism of her ideology and morality. Now, if the cooperation was unsuitable, she could negotiate directly with the coach or change personnel. In June 2011, 29-year-old Li Na won the French Open women's singles title in Paris, becoming the first Asian player to win a Grand Slam singles title. There was something very awkward here for the whole-nation system. In the past, managers easily explained success as the result of strict management. Yet Li Na's two Grand Slam titles both appeared after she gained more autonomy. Those decisions that were supposedly supposed to be made by leaders were put into her own hands, and her career could still move forward. Since she could organize her own team and achieve such results, how much validity remained in those demands that previously restricted her choice of coaches and training arrangements?

After winning the French Open, new conflicts quickly emerged. This time, it was about whether she should return to China to celebrate. With a Chinese player achieving such a breakthrough, television programs, relevant authorities, and all kinds of events wanted her back. But shortly after the French Open ended, Wimbledon was about to begin, and she had to arrange her training and preparation. Li Na put preparation first and did not immediately return to China to participate in celebrations as the outside world hoped. CCTV's News Weekly at the time recorded her considerations. A professional player had to prepare for the next match, and team expenses also depended on her continuing to play. Returning home for celebrations would take up her preparation time, round-trip flights would consume her physical energy, and she would have to adjust to jet lag and rearrange training. She had to consider how these activities would affect her next match. In the same CCTV program, she was also recorded thanking Sun Jinfang for promoting reforms, acknowledging that this decentralization helped her while insisting on preparing according to her own professional schedule. Thanking reforms does not mean accepting every subsequent event arrangement. This is precisely what many power relationships in China are unwilling to admit: once they give you an opportunity, they expect you to remain obedient; once they cultivate you, they expect all your future achievements to prove the managers are wise. Once you finish thanking specific help and still stick to your own arrangements, you will appear insufficiently grateful. After winning the championship, the outside world was still demanding how she should speak and how she should treat reporters and fans. She also had her own opinions on this. In March 2012, Li Na played professional matches in Indian Wells. In an interview, she said that she was a tennis player, playing her own tennis here and doing her own job. Indian Wells is a professional tour where players compete as individuals. Li Na had played in the Olympics representing the country and also hoped to talk about her own work and goals on the professional tour.

She was unwilling to frame every professional match as bringing honor to the country. If winning meant completing a political task and losing meant failing the country, how could a player treat winning and losing normally anywhere? After losing a match, she not only had to analyze the game but also cope with outside accusations regarding her sense of responsibility and patriotism. In that interview, she also mentioned a dilemma: if she spoke the truth, some people would hate her. Yet she was still willing to speak it, because once she started lying, she would have to use even more lies to cover it up.

However, gaining professional autonomy did not immediately free her from past influences. Also in 2012, she began working with Carlos Rodríguez. Carlos had long coached Belgian star Justine Henin, and Li Na invited him to continue improving. Yet this coach quickly discovered that what also needed handling was her attitude toward herself. Later, in an exclusive interview with Beijing Youth Daily, Li Na recounted that she had trained with her early coaches for about ten years, and in her memory, she almost never received praise. When others said she played well, she would still doubt it. She connected this lack of confidence with her early training experiences. Even after winning a Grand Slam, she still needed to overcome self-doubt. What Carlos had to do was make her believe in herself again.

At the 2013 Australian Open, Li Na reached the final. Before the semifinal, Carlos prepared a small note for her to read before bed, reminding her to believe in herself. Talking about this after the match, she also mentioned that she could tell Carlos she was nervous. She could directly tell her coach she was nervous, and the coach would find a way to help her. She did not have to hide her fear first and pretend there were no problems at all. Carlos did not relax training requirements because of this; he would have Jiang Shan increase variations during sparring, hitting balls she was not accustomed to, forcing her to practice how to deal with unfamiliar rhythms. He needed her to accept difficulties and also accept that she would fail.

In an interview with Chinese reporters, he explicitly stated that training plans must be formulated according to the new player's characteristics, and he could not keep thinking about how he led Justine Henin to championships in the past. This is precisely the most worth-learning part of advanced training methods. A coach must study the person in front of them and continuously adjust their work. High-intensity training is acceptable, and strict requirements are acceptable, but the coach must also explain requirements, observe reactions, and help the player digest pressure.

Li Na later also said that she gradually became willing to share very personal thoughts with Carlos because she trusted him and believed he would keep secrets. Only when a coach is willing to listen and can keep secrets would she dare to say what was truly troubling her. Looking back at the handling in 2005, we know how big the difference was. When Li Na was dissatisfied with training, the director first judged her ideology and morality. Here, when she said she was afraid and doubtful, the coach instead asked how to help her continue to improve. A coach can only help a player overcome these difficulties by understanding why they are afraid and why they doubt themselves. Merely demanding obedience and then suppressing her with ideology and morality cannot solve these problems.

Yet by the 2013 French Open, Chinese public opinion's demands on Li Na once again pushed her back into moral judgment. On May 30, she lost in the second round of the women's singles. At the post-match press conference, a reporter asked her if this was her worst performance since participating in the French Open and if she had anything to say to Chinese fans. Li Na retorted, what did she need to say to them? She had just lost a match. Then, she uttered the words that sparked huge controversy: "Three bows and nine kowtows? Should I apologize to them?"

This response was sharp. But the ensuing public opinion went far beyond this single Q&A. The People’s Daily Overseas Edition published an article criticizing her image and professional conduct, demanding she consider the impact on young fans. Why does a sharp answer become a metric for whether she knows how to take responsibility? Athletes have professional obligations to accept interviews, follow rules, and fulfill contracts. She can be criticized by reporters and fans for a poor attitude. But she never made a promise to win every match. Fans liking her does not grant them the right to demand her confession.

Professional follow-up questions can be sharp. Why were there so many errors, how to evaluate the opponent, how to adjust for the next step—these questions help the audience understand the game. Once the debate slides into whether you have let down Chinese fans or shown the required sense of responsibility, the person who lost the match must prove once again that they are a good person. Chinese sports propaganda repeatedly emphasizes winning glory for the country, linking every victory or defeat to national honor. Once an athlete loses, they are easily accused of letting down the country and the fans. She had already lost the match, yet still had to deal with criticism beyond the game. Going solo gave her more professional autonomy, but it did not make these accusations disappear.

Professional tennis must also help players handle media relations. The WTA’s current public player development programs include media training and education on public expression. Players must learn to handle interviews and understand their professional obligations. It also includes player health, safety, and professional development in its management scope. Cultivating expression skills should help players articulate their thoughts clearly. Since a management organization can make demands on players, it should also provide help and care about the consequences of long-term pressure. Elevating an unpleasant answer directly into a moral issue does little to improve interviews or protect players.

In 2013, at Carlos’s suggestion, Li Na went to see Yu Liqiao, the coach who had led her for nearly a decade on the Hubei team, to address the past trauma face-to-face. Li Na later told Sports Illustrated that in her early years, other coaches watched her play and believed she had the ability to enter the world's top 20, but she didn't believe it. Her own coach kept telling her she wasn't good enough, making it hard for her to believe in others' affirmation. Carlos later discovered that she would get angry at herself for mistakes and could not accept having times when she played poorly. He reminded her that she was using the way her early coach treated her to continue punishing herself.

On the way to see Yu Liqiao, Li Na was very nervous. She was already in her thirties and had won the French Open, yet she was still worried about being scolded head-on when she had to speak about the trauma she suffered at fifteen. The two finally sat down and talked for about twenty minutes. Li Na told Yu Liqiao that her actions back then had caused her deep harm and almost destroyed her. According to Li Na’s recollection in a 2014 Sports Illustrated interview, Yu Liqiao explained that she did it to make her improve. But the other party did not apologize. After speaking it out, Li Na felt better; she said in an interview on CCTV that she began to be able to accept Yu Liqiao. But this was only the first step.

The Chinese sports system loves to talk about how strict teachers produce outstanding students, interpreting a coach's suppression as good intentions. However, even after Li Na achieved success, she had to spend a lot of effort dealing with her early inferiority and fear. Trophies cannot prove that those injuries were necessary, let alone exempt the perpetrators from responsibility. If a system only asks whether athletes know how to be grateful, but does not ask how coaches treat children, it is difficult for athletes to publicly speak about the harm they have suffered. A coach has the right to demand technical improvement and the responsibility to protect the athlete's mental health. Keeping a child feeling not good enough for a long time and then explaining it away with "it's for your own good" is simply evading responsibility for the harm. Carlos helping her accept mistakes and speak out about her fears was also to enable her to continue to improve.

By early 2014, after winning the Shenzhen Open, Li Na publicly announced her goal for the new season: to win another Grand Slam. She said it was Carlos who encouraged her to say her goal out loud and let everyone supervise her to complete it. In January 2014, Li Na entered the Australian Open final again. This was her third time on this stage in four years, and she hadn't won the title the previous two times. In the first set, she was tight and made many errors, but after winning the tie-break, she gradually loosened up. She didn't let her opponent win a single game in the second set, eventually defeating Cibulkova to win her second Grand Slam title.

At the awards ceremony, she thanked her team in English and cracked jokes. When mentioning her agent, she thanked them for helping her make money. When mentioning Jiang Shan, she thanked her husband for his companionship, practice, and taking care of all the trivial work, and joked that her husband was lucky to have found her. The whole audience laughed. Her agent helped her handle commercial cooperation, and her husband accompanied her in training and took care of her daily life. She was grateful for this practical help and also frankly admitted that professional players live off match and commercial income.

After returning to China, Hubei authorities also arranged a celebration banquet for her. Li Na flew back to China from Melbourne, transferred through Guangzhou to return to Wuhan, and she could finally put the competition aside for a while and go home to celebrate the Lunar New Year. Back in Wuhan, Yu Liqiao also stepped forward to hug her, and a photo of the hug quickly spread. Li Na did not show a smile in the photo. The head of the sports department of the Wuhan Evening News accused her on Weibo of "lacking the minimum respect" for her former mentor and announced that he would no longer watch any of her matches. A few months ago, Li Na had already stated on CCTV that Yu Liqiao's years of teaching made her feel that she was not good enough, and when talking about these hurts, she was still afraid of being scolded. By the time of this public hug, public opinion demanded that she appear affectionate and grateful. Just because a coach used to train her does not mean she has a duty to look affectionate in front of the cameras; she has the right to decide how to get along with this coach. Accusing her of being ungrateful without questioning the harm she suffered in her early years is simply demanding that she maintain the image of a mentor for those who harmed her.

Also sparking controversy was a photo of Hubei Provincial Party Secretary Li Hongzhong presenting her with an 800,000 RMB award. Many people stared at her face, arguing about why this champion was unhappy. All these accusations demanded that she put on an expression that met expectations. We should also look at how this celebration banquet was arranged in the first place. The Beijing Youth News interviewed Director Zhou of the Hubei Tennis Center at the time. According to his account, Hubei authorities initially failed to contact Li Na, so they arranged for personnel to go to Guangzhou Airport to wait for her to transfer flights, and then flew with her to Wuhan. Staff told her that the provincial party committee wanted to hold a celebration banquet in the next few days. Li Na directly refused. After communication, she agreed to have the celebration arranged at Wuhan Airport. To complete this event, the director of the tennis center and the director of the office also went to the airport to pick her up, and were assigned the task of helping her collect her checked luggage. She accepted the 800,000 RMB reward and attended the airport celebration, but did not agree to the arrangement of holding it on another date. She refused some demands and accepted others.

Li Na could thank her hometown for its cultivation and support, and her hometown could also express its joy, but after an athlete achieves professional results abroad, how to arrange things upon returning home should be left for her to decide. Public awards can express affirmation, but they should not turn into control over her private time. Why must it be arranged all the way from Guangzhou to Wuhan just to make a celebration banquet happen? Why did the coordination around her have to continue after a champion refused? By pulling off this celebration banquet, leaders could attend, present awards, and take group photos, and Li Na's championship also became a work achievement that the relevant departments could showcase. After she and her team won the professional tournament abroad, they still had to coordinate their time around the leaders' event arrangements upon returning to China. This is also what I find most repulsive about the Chinese sports system.

When athletes strive for autonomy, administrators are quick to ask if you have forgotten who trained you; when athletes achieve success through independent development, administrators are very skilled at arranging how to share the glory together. When it was her turn to refuse an arrangement, she still had to go through repeated coordination just to reduce the days occupied. The struggle between Li Na and the system was never completely ended by a single going-it-alone move. She could choose her coach and professional schedule, but how celebration events were arranged and whether her public speech met outside demands still caused conflicts.

Also in 2014, knee injuries made her bid farewell to the professional arena. At the retirement press conference, a reporter asked which period of her professional career was the happiest and most enjoyable, and her answer was the last two years. She said it took her about fifteen years from starting to play tennis to gradually growing to love it. By the last two years, she gradually understood the sport and learned to stop blaming herself all the time. She had long since mastered top-notch skills, but it took her a long time to slowly grow to love tennis and stop always blaming herself. This experience cannot simply be told as an inspirational story of how a strict teacher produces brilliant students.

When she retired, she also thanked the national team's training and platform, and those thanks had specific objects and experiences. She acknowledged that she had received help, and the early harm did indeed exist. Thanking cultivation cannot become a reason to demand her continued obedience. Therefore, when we ask how much Li Na hates this system, the answer lies in the price she paid. When she was young, she would rather leave the arena; when she had the conditions, she would rather bear the team's expenses herself. Even after achieving success, she still needed to overcome her early fears and refuse activities she did not want to attend. She wanted to protect her body, choose her own coach, arrange matches, and also hoped to publicly express her opinions on management. She inherently had the right to make these choices. And for administrators who place too much value on obedience, the most uncomfortable thing about this type of champion is that she lets everyone see that many things previously declared to be decided by leaders can also be decided by the players themselves, and they can do it very well.

In 2019, Li Na was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame. By 2024, when Zheng Qinwen spoke about her own Grand Slam dreams, she still mentioned the influence brought by Li Na. The fact that the commentator's list did not include Li Na does not change her contribution to Chinese tennis. Judging Li Na's contribution to Chinese tennis should not first depend on whether she satisfied the administrators. Cultivating excellent athletes is an achievement of sports work; allowing excellent athletes to choose their own paths with dignity is the level that a sports system should reach. That is all for today. If this episode is valuable to you, please like, turn on the notification bell, and share it. You are also welcome to subscribe to this channel. Friends who are able to can join as members to support our small channel. I am Yao Yao Jiang, who loves to think and values logic. See you in the next episode.