news

한어Русский языкEnglishFrançaisIndonesianSanskrit日本語DeutschPortuguêsΕλληνικάespañolItalianoSuomalainenLatina

the hong kong tennis association (hkta) and title sponsor prudential limited (prudential) announced today (11th) that li na will serve as the tournament director of the hong kong open. on september 12th, beijing time, li na accepted an interview with hong kong media.

when a reporter mistakenly said that zheng qinwen "lost in the singles round of 16" in the just-concluded us open, li na immediately corrected him: "it was the quarterfinals."

when asked by reporters whether zheng qinwen's achievements were short-lived, li na said: "i never think that a player's success is short-lived, because they will pay a lot in private for this success, but people just don't see it. i will seriously criticize those who say that players are short-lived, which is disrespectful to the players' efforts."

li na and zheng qinwen are both from hubei. when asked what characteristics hubei people have that make them champions, li na replied: "we all have hot tempers and a strong desire to win."

"zheng qinwen and i were born in different eras, so our achievements are difficult to compare. when zheng qinwen was still young, everyone said that chinese tennis would never achieve good results again. but when zheng qinwen won the olympic gold medal, everyone's expectations were different."

when asked if china's tennis will have to wait another 10 years for its next historic breakthrough, li na said: "the tennis atmosphere in china is very good now, and both men's and women's sports have made good progress. so 10 years is a bit long, 5 years would be good."

regarding the decision to retire that year, li na said: "after the surgery, i thought about whether to continue, but after trying many times, my knees would swell when i played tennis, and i couldn't reach the state i expected, so i didn't feel reluctant to quit tennis. in my career as a player, i have given 120% of my efforts and i have done my best for myself and the team."