In some ways, today's women's singles final at the Australian Open seems like a mismatch: Li Na, 1.3 billion Chinese, and the global tennis marketing machine, versus 27-year-old mother Kim Clijsters from Belgium.
Look beyond race and appearances, and Li and Clijsters are almost mirror images of each other. They are both lovable, down-to-earth women who are much older than most of their opponents. They have both lost fathers, and have built supportive, family-like teams around them.
Clijsters takes care of her baby Jada back in the hotel, while her husband, Brian Lynch, plays in the NBA in the United States; Li stays with her husband and coach Jiang Shan, her sweetheart since age 12 in Wuhan.
Li and Clijsters are both mentally tough, offensive-minded players who will try to impose their games on each other.
'Who's going to be a little bit more powerful and with fewer unforced errors is going to have the chance to win,' Clijsters said, adding she would fight for every shot, 'and then we'll see'.
If pressure means anything, it is all on Li, hailed by Chinese Tennis Association boss Sun Jinfang as a pioneer and national sports hero on a par with NBA great Yao Ming and Olympic champion hurdler Liu Xiang.
'There is always a pioneer pushing things forward in his or her time, and Li is a sporting pioneer of her time,' Sun told the China Daily. 'I think she has an international standing similar to Yao Ming or Liu Xiang. She has been undervalued a little bit due to the relatively low profile of tennis in China.'
