After a disappointing Olympic campaign in 2012, Li hired Carlos Rodriguez, former mentor of seven-time major winner Justine Henin, as her new coach. She soon developed good chemistry with the Argentinean.

Under Rodriguez's guidance, Li rekindled her form in 2013, reaching the Australian Open final, the quarterfinals in Wimbledon and the semis of the U.S. Open, as well as improving her world ranking to No. 3.

Finally Li captured her second Grand Slam title at the Australian Open in January this year—just the second woman over age 30 to win the title in the Open Era, after Margaret Court. The victory helped propel Li to World No.2 on February 17, the highest ranking ever attained by an Asian player.

Along the way, Li established a string of breakthroughs for Chinese tennis, alongside her Grand Slam title triumphs. She was the first to win a WTA singles title in 2004 and first to win a WTA Premier title in 2011; first to reach a Grand Slam singles quarterfinal in 2006, first to compete in singles at the WTA Finals in 2011-13, and first to crack the singles Top 20 on August 14, 2006, Top 10 on February 1, 2010 and Top 5 on June 6, 2011.

Another way

Apart from the history Li made on the court, the successes she made in her professional career show another way for Chinese athletes to achieve at top levels, in addition to the national sports system.

The Chinese Government invests heavily in sport and recruits athletes at a young age. Through a "national system," which features strict training and a stable income for athletes, a number of world champions have been created.

It was under this system that the Chinese Government made a strategic decision to get some Chinese faces into professional tennis, an emerging market in the country.

When Li was on the national team, her coach was very strict. She also found it hard to play to her full potential in the team, especially after her storming style of attack was discouraged by some coaches.

In 2002, she chose to retire from her career as a tennis player. "Her early retirement was due to her disappointment with the rigid management style of the national tennis team," said Sun Jinfang, Director of the Tennis Administration Center (TAC) of the General Administration of Sport of China.

In addition to the center's stiff management style and outdated training methods, Li was also frustrated with the practice of dividing prize money between the entire team. According to a long-established rule, each winning player was required to turn over 65 percent of his or her prize to the sports authorities.

Though Li returned to the national team in 2004 at the persuasion of Sun, her dissatisfaction with the national system surfaced again after her failed attempt to defend the women's single title at the 10th National Games in 2005.

"The failure is attributable to the national tennis team's defective system," Li complained at the post-match press conference. "It would be better for them to link a player's performance to actual awards." Her remarks were widely quoted by the media and were interpreted as a blunt critique of the athlete training system.

In December of 2008, along with three other female players, Li left the national team to take part in an experimental program for tennis players widely known as "fly alone."

The program granted them the freedom to pick their own coaches and make arrangements for their training and tournament schedules. Moreover, they only needed to hand 8 percent of their prize money to the TAC.

"We took a lot of risks with the reform. When we let them fly, we didn't know if they would succeed. Now they are successful, which means our reform was correct," said Sun.

"For the sport of tennis, the teenage period should take place in the national system, because China is still a developing country and tennis coaching requires a lot of money. No professional athletes could come out alone without the national system's backup," Sun said. "Of course, when athletes come to a crossroads, we let them play individually on the world stage, promoting the sport in China."

However, many others don't agree. They believe Li's success has entirely relied on her own hard work and courage in breaking free of the shackles of the state-run sports system, so that she managed her own athletic career.

"Li's story proves that in an international, professionalized sport like tennis, our national system constrains personal growth," said Zhang Wei, a sports editor with Jiefang Daily.

Longtime sports commentator Sun Qun said that it was the independent streak that helped Li become "a true professional athlete."

Regardless, Li's story can teach other Chinese athletes a thing or two. "It proved that there exists another way for athletes to find success outside the national sports system," said Ren Hai, a professor of Olympic studies at Beijing Sport University. 

Email us at: yinpumin@bjreview.com