Rising teen tennis star serves new hope

Xu Shilin, on top of her game

A promising tennis player has the potential to become China's next Li Na, with her talent, foreign coaching and professional approach, observers say.

While Chinese tennis fans lament the recent retirement of Li, a two-time Grand Slam champion, teenager Xu Shilin's ascent to No 1 in the International Tennis Federation's world junior tennis rankings for girls has stolen the spotlight.

Xu, a 16-year-old right-hander, grabbed the top spot on Monday, days after winning the singles title at the World Super Junior Championships in Osaka.

It was Xu's second major victory this year. She won the gold medal at the Nanjing Youth Olympics' singles tournament in August.

With aggressiveness on the court and a strong personality nurtured in a foreign culture, Xu, who was sent to the US for tennis training at age 8, reminds people of the stylish Li while featuring her own ambitious individuality.

"My personal goal is to reach the top 10 in the world, and I hope to win a Grand Slam title before I'm 20," said the Guangdong native, whose father runs a tennis academy in her home city of Zhongshan.

With Li retiring from the Women's Tennis Association tour, the quest for the next Chinese star has become more urgent than ever. The rise of youngsters like Xu, groomed by more professional approaches, has brought hope she can fulfill those hefty expectations.

Introduced to the game by her father when she was 4, Xu started to flourish at an early age. She claimed multiple national junior titles before moving to the US state of Florida with her parents in 2006 to practice full-time at the renowned IMG Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy.

After a sojourn at the Bollettieri Academy, the tennis nursery that has produced stars like Andre Agassi and Xu's idol, Maria Sharapova, Xu settled down at the International Tennis Academy in Florida in 2009, accompanied by her parents, and started to build her junior ranking with solid results at US Tennis Association events and on the ITF Circuit.

Overseas training "won't work out for everybody, but it's what my parents picked for me because they believed I had the talent (to become a star) when I was very young," said Xu, who now speaks English more fluently than Mandarin.

By earning a full scholarship worth about $80,000 from the ITA for two years in 2013 and a large cache of sponsorship funds, Xu has already eased some of the financial burden on her family.

Her father, Xu Yang, said the family has invested at least 6 million yuan ($981,600) on his daughter, and the effort has finally begun to pay off.

"With her ranking climbing high enough to qualify for some WTA professional tournaments, we saw hope and were proud of her," Xu Yang said.

Xu's agent - Chen Yijie with Shanghai-based ZOU Marketing Inc - said earlier during the China Open in Beijing that the agency has considered putting together a personal crew, including a coach, a physician and supporting staff, for Xu's transition from junior player to pro.

The success highlighted by Xu's model has inspired the sport governing body to reform its traditional State-run sports cultivating system.

"The progress of some young players, who developed out of the national system on their own, brought us a fresh approach to nurture talent," said Qing Shanglin, deputy director of the State tennis administration center.

"We should offer more international exposure, more freedom and more diversity to the next generation."

Contact the writer at sunxiaochen@chinadaily.com.cn