Li liking stardom

Li Na is enjoying her status among the elite of the women's game after her French Open win.

Li Na is enjoying her newfound status among the elite of the women's game, after a sometimes rocky road to the top was finally completed earlier this year with victory in the French Open. Success at Roland Garros made Li the first player from Asia to win a Grand Slam title and with her popularity surging as a result, companies wanting to tap into the fertile markets of her Chinese homeland have stepped forward with lucrative offers. Since her win against Francesca Schiavone in Paris, Mercedes-Benz has signed a deal to make Li its first "global ambassador". Mercedes has joined luxury watchmaker Rolex and ice cream company Haagen-Dazs, along with sporting goods giants Nike, a longtime sponsor which got a boost in China from her success. "She has captivated a country," Max Eisenbud, Li's agent at IMG, told Sports Business Journal. "We could do 25 deals." Eisenbud has predicted that Li's endorsements over the next three years could top $40 million, which could enable her to eclipse Maria Sharapova as the top endorsement earner in women's sports. Sharapova, who is also represented by Eisenbud, is estimated by Forbes to make more than $25 million per year. Not long after Li's disappointing second-round Wimbledon loss to Sabine Lisicki, IMG announced plans for an exhibition re-match between her and the Russian in Wuhan in December. Interest in Li took an upswing when she finished runner-up to Kim Clijsters at the Australian Open in January.

Tough decision

However, her form then dipped and after four straight first-round defeats, she made the tough decision to drop husband Jiang Shan as her coach and hire Michael Mortensen instead. The Dane was since helped Li to turn things around - the switch typifying the no-nonsense approach the 29-year-old has taken throughout her career. Li turned to tennis after an early foray into badminton. But her dissatisfaction with the Chinese sports system led to clashes with officialdom. Frustrated at her inability to move past the fringes of the WTA tour, she retired for two years in her early 20s and studied journalism. Now she is a superstar in China, while the dry humour she displayed in both Melbourne and Paris has also won her a following in the West. Indeed, such is Li's popularity back home that the state-run Xinhua news agency reported that the government in her native Hubei province showered her with honours and wanted to appoint her deputy head of the provincial tennis administration centre. Li turned the offer down, saying she was too busy playing tennis. However, that doesn't mean she isn't relishing her newfound profile. "Amazing," she said of her reception when she returned to China in July. "I think because I didn't do well in Wimbledon, maybe not so many people," she said. "The day was so warm, but still I think at least a thousand people were coming just to say, 'Well done, congratulations.' "I was feeling like, 'Wow, now I'm a star,'" she said with a smile. Recognition would be sure to increase still further should the world number five produce another strong showing at the upcoming US Open. "So life was changed a little bit," Li added with another smile. "But I like it."