As I lay asleep tonight, millions of people will be watching the Australian Open Women’s final between Kim Clijsters and Li Na. Seems like a strange final, where are the Williams sisters, Henin, even Kuznetsova? This can’t be good for women’s tennis, right? Wrong. Besides maybe an all Williams sister final (these are actually really boring), this is one of the best things that has happened for women’s tennis in the last decade.
On the one hand, you have Clijsters - tennis’ darling who has our hearts because of her loveable loser history. While she’s cranked out a few US Open victories, we’re just not convinced that she’s comfortable on the big stage and we worry that she’ll let another chance slip through her fingers. A match with Clijsters means a match with emotions.
Then there’s Li Na - a perrenial contender who has consistently been nipping at the top player’s heels for the last few years. She can battle with the best the WTA has to offer nowadays and she’s afraid of nobody. Bigger than Li Na herself is the Chinese fanbase she represents.
Being a prominent athlete from China has huge implications for that sport and the league it’s involved with. We saw it with Yao Ming, how he single handedly opened up basketball in the country and provided the NBA with 300 million plus new fans. I love Belgian waffles and all but the country only has 10.8 million people. China’s 1.3 billion population eats Belgium for breakfast or maybe even a snack. If 1% of China starts to pay attention because of Li Na and gets into tennis, that’s all of Belgium.
So basically, it doesn’t matter who wins tonight. If Kim wins, that’s super. If Li Na wins, whoopidee doo. Either way, the WTA is getting millions of new people being introduced to the sport and the athletes associated with it. I’m no marketing expert, but that’s freaking priceless.
No comments:
Post a Comment