Is there a curse on first-time Grand Slam champions? - Part One: Li Na
A Grand Slam win certainly marks a great achievement in the careers of every tennis player in the world. It’s nothing less than a dream come true for any tennis player to hold a Grand Slam trophy for the first time and it is reckoned
that only the best in the business deserve to lift the gold in a Major.
The running year has witnessed some remarkable runs of new champions at the Grand Slam tournaments on the women’s side and despite the high of bagging the Major title, it appears that all of them have gone through terrible slumps
immediately. It is somewhat surprising for every tennis fan that how the new Grand Slam champions have fallen out of the early rounds of the tournaments following their emphatic wins. One has to question if there is any kind of curse amongst the WTA (Women’s
Tennis Association) player’s first-time winners?
2011 witnessed its first ever Chinese competitor to win the French Open title in summer. Currently holding the sixth spot in the WTA World Rankings, Li Na became the first Asian contestant to grab a Grand Slam title this year.
29-year-old Chinese has already won five WTA championship titles in her career, two of which came in 2011, including the all-prestigious Roland Garros victory as well.
Li Na stepped in to the world of professionals tennis in 1999 and her run till date has been a story of continuous improvement and sheer determination. The Chinese veteran is considered to be one of the craftiest players among
all the women tennis athletes and his unmatched abilities are admired by a huge fan club.
Li Na took off the current year as world number 11, inching closer to break in the Top-10 for the first time. She won her third WTA singles title in his very first tournament of the year in Sydney and then became the first Chinese
to reach the final of the Australian Open. Li Na’s dream run was ended by Kim Clijsters of Belgium, who outplayed the Chinese in her first Grand Slam final.
Despite losing the title match at the Grand Slam Down Under, Li Na rose to her career best ranking of number seven in WTA rankings. She kept lingering in the tournaments to follow, suffering early dismissals in most of the events
until she got another opportunity to have a title shot at the Roland Garros. Li Na beat all the odds and outplayed the defending champion, Francesca Schiavone of France, in straight sets 6-4, 7-6(0), to claim her first Grand Slam title.
Li Na outplayed a number of top class competitors, which include Maria Sharapova, Victoria Azarenka and Petra Kvitova, en route to her French Open victory. She reached the world number four spot and it seemed as if the Chinese
competitor is well on course to top the world rankings with her belligerent form but it was that time the stigma got her. Li Na’s form went through a miserable slump immediately after her Roland Garros win and she suffered early round defeats in a number of
tournaments to follow.
It was anticipated that the French Open winner will repeat her wonders in the Wimbledon but the grassy surface wasn’t too friendly for Li Na. She was defeated in the second round at the hands of Sabine Lisicki of Germany. Her form
kept deteriorating in the following tournaments and the Chinese suffered a first round defeat at the US Open as well.
Li Na has reached just one semi-final, which was at the New Haven Open, after her successful French Open campaign and got dumped by Petra Cetkovska in three sets. She is having a 31-15 winning record this WTA season so far but
has dropped three places in four month’s time to fall on number seven.
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