As Li Na collapsed in the clay of Roland Garros in rapturous joy on Saturday, the sight of the first Asian to ever win a Grand Slam tennis singles title must have been almost as exciting for executives in the global tennis industry.
The French Open final was watched by an estimated 95m viewers on state sports television and Ms Li’s victory was front-page news on Sunday in virtually every Chinese newspaper, including Communist Party mouthpiece People’s Daily.
Today just over 12m people in China regularly play tennis, according to figures published in state media, a miniscule portion of the country’s 1.3bn population and far fewer than other popular racket sports like table tennis and badminton.
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