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 WTA Chairman & CEO Stacey Allaster sat down with China Daily for an exclusive interview in which she weighs in on Tianjin losing the WTA Championship bid to Singapore, the expansion of the China Open in the past decade and Li Na's influence on the association. Singapore beat China's Tianjin to host the WTA Championships for the next five years. What are its competitive advantages? Tianjin put forward a very good bid. We are excited to have good conversations with them. In the end, Singapore was chosen for a couple of strategic reasons. We've had excellent footprints in China. WTA will have eight events in China in 2014 and the China Open as our flagship event. Singapore provided an opportunity for growth in southeast Asia. They also have the infrastructure and a stadium already built... This year marks the 10th anniversary of China Open? The organizers vowed on many occasions that they are in pursuit of becoming a fifth grand slam. Do you think that is possible in the future? I think the grand slams are grand slams for history. But WTA events like the China Open, Madrid, Sony Open in Miami, BNP Paribas in Indian Wells, those are our four equal-prize money events. The best on the WTA. And they all aspire to want to be a bigger and better (event). Having them looking up to the grand slams and wanting to present our sport with the stages and standards at that level is very good for women's tennis. How big a fact is Li Na in all of that? Li Na's been the most impactful player of this decade for the growth of women's tennis in China and Asia-Pacific. So it is not a coincidence that two of three candidate cities for the Championships came from Asia Pacific – Tianjin and Singapore. Our TV ratings, number of hours, number of fans and social media are off the charts, and I attribute a lot of that to Li Na. Full story
ISTANBUL, TURKEY - (L-R) Sara Errani of Italy, Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland, Petra Kvitova of Czech Republic, Serena Williams of USA, Victoria Azarenka of Belarus, Li Na of China, Jelena Jankovic of Serbia, and Angelique Kerber of Germany pose with the Billie Jean King trophy for the official photo of the TEB BNP Paribas WTA Championships-Istanbul. [Photo by Matthew Stockman/Getty Images for WTA] The eight players were drawn into the following two groups: RED GROUP (seed in parentheses) (1) Serena Williams (USA) (3) Agnieszka Radwanska (POL) (5) Petra Kvitova (CZE) (8) Angelique Kerber (GER) WHITE GROUP (2) Victoria Azarenka (BLR) (4) Li Na (CHN) (6) Sara Errani (ITA) (7) Jelena Jankovic (SRB) |
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 Li Na insists 2013 is her best year
Despite bagging only one WTA title so far in 2013, Li Na still rates this season as the best of her 14-year career. Even better than 2011 when the breakout Chinese ace became the first Asian to win a singles Grand Slam in the French Open. >>> Tough workouts lead to victory on the court, but a responsible attitude makes one a champion in life. That's what China's Grand Slam champion ace Li Na has learned from her ups and downs during the 2013 WTA season and what she tries to pass on to the next generation, which grew up admiring the Wuhan native. >>> |
 Li Na set for 3rd WTA Championships run The chance of making Li Na's first semi-final appearance at the WTA Championships worked out to be decent. The 4th seeded Chinese tennis ace, with Vitoria Azarenka (No.2), Sara Errani (No.6), Jelena Jankovic (No.7) in the white group, will vie for two semi-final berths in the round-robin stage. >>>
The China Open's meteoric rise in international stature has led to soaring national interest in the sport. Nobody took China Open tournament director Alfred Zhang seriously when he declared a vision during the event's 2004 debut to make it the "fifth Grand Slam". >>> |
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 Hard work key for Serena's supremacy in tennis Rome wasn't built overnight, and neither is Serena Williams' supremacy in women's tennis, said the 17-time Grand Slam champion's coach. Watching Williams adding another title (China Open champion) to her dazzling trophy collection, which already includes 17 Grand Slam singles crowns, on Sunday, the US star's current coach Patrick Mouratoglou said the US star's born gift has little to do with her domination in the game. >>> 'Fly Alone' Zhang Shuai, China's next Li Na?
Zhang Shuai grinned widely as she held up her first WTA tournament trophy. Beating her final opponent Vania King 7-6 (1), 6-1 on Saturday, the wild card player surprised everyone by winning every match in two sets in the WTA Guangzhou Open. >>> |
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Li Na: (on whether she has a personal best year in 2013) I don't know how the other player, but for me didn't matter how many tournament you win. |
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Jelena Jankovic: (on being in a veteran group) No, I'm one of the youngest one. I'm still below 30. What's wrong? |
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Petra Kvitova: (on returning to top 10) I don't think that the dip out of the top 10 is really big deal. That's a number before my name, and that's it for me. |
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Sara Errani: (on if she has considered stop playing doubles) No, never, because I have a lot of fun playing doubles. I think also the doubles help my singles game. So I like to play both. |
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Angelique Kerber: (on getting the Linz wildcard) You know, I was just asking for the wildcard in Linz and I got it. |
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