“I’m sure she believes now, ‘Yes, I am one of them.’”Wang’s sights are now set on the ultimate prizes in tennis. Li’s trailblazing led the WTA to invest heavily in expanding the tour throughout China, which has allowed Wang to aim for big goals close to home. Wang is based in Shenzhen, site of the WTA year-end championships for the tour’s top eight for the next nine years, which awards over $4 million to the champion. “Every player, they want to be top 10 and play finals — and it’s really big money,” she said. She has speculated that officials with China’s tennis federation were first drawn to her because she was pretty, then realized she was actually pretty good at tennis, too.

Source: New York Times January 25, 2020 00:56 UTC