Chinese top tennis player Li Na has denied that she ever attacked China's sport system and tennis officials.
She said there was an misunderstanding in the reports and she was thankful for the tennis association's support.
"I would never be in this place if it had not for the support from the tennis association. It is the same for other good Chinese players as well," she told Xinhua Thursday in an email.
She said it was supposed to be a good thing for them to get more room to manage their own career.
China's second highest ranked player at 30 in the world, Li was reported to have slammed on China's sport system when she said young athletes need more freedom.
"I love what it is right now. In the past, national or the provincial sports administrators arranged everything for you and you had no options but to follow their arrangements," Li was quoted by the April 15 version China Daily and a number of other Chinese newspapers as well.
"If I had an opportunity to choose what I wanted to do in childhood, I wouldn't go for tennis. It is a sport that I was always pushed to do, first by my parents, then provincial and national sports administrators," she was quoted.
Li, together with Wimbledon semifinalist Zheng Jie, Zheng's Grand Slam doubles title winning partner Yan Zi and Peng Shuai, became the few Chinese tennis players to leave the state-supported system at the end of last year.
Chinese tennis association deputy head Gao Shenyang said they were willing to give the players more room but the problem was whether they could support themselves on their own.
"We have been treating everyone equally but players are at different competition levels," Gao told Xiaoxiang Morning, a newspaper based in Hunan province on Wednesday. "We allow leading ones like Li Na, Peng Shuai and Zheng Jie to arrange their own schedules because they take well control of their own trainings and can afford training fees themselves."
"For many other players, they choose to stay with the national team as they are not able to support themselves yet," he added.
Zheng is the highest ranked Chinese player standing in 16th while Peng, long trained in the United States, is 33rd in the world.
China's sporting system remains largely a state-support model while some private training system is exploring its way on the side.
Gao admitted, however, it took time for a system to evolve.
"In the past, it was unimaginable for us to manage it on one's own. We are making progress step by step," he told the newspaper.
Under the state structure, children with sport talents are spotted and admitted into local sport schools before they excel to go into the provincial and eventually the national teams.
The model has been unquestionably successful, with China topping the gold medal count at last year's Beijing Olympics.
But it did not work well for more market-oriented sports like soccer.
(Xinhua News Agency April 25, 2009)
