By Nick Georgandis
Photo Credit: Mark Peterson/ Corleve

(June 5, 2011) How big was Li Na's French Open final win to her home country of China on Saturday?

Big enough that Chinese state television announcer Tong Kexin proclaimed "This has left a really deep impression on the world."

How big was the victory to the rest of the WTA? It delivered the message to the likes of Caroline Wozniacki, Vera Zvonareva and Samantha Stosur that they better wake up or the changing of the guard will come again before they even have a chance to put their dress uniforms on.

One day short of 22 years since Michael Chang became the first player of Asian descent to win a Grand Slam title (also the French Open), Li Na became the first Asian-born player to do the same, using a second-set rally and a dominant tie-break to end the run of 2010 champion Francesca Schiavone.

On Monday, Li will move up to No. 4 in the world, and if she keeps making big runs in majors this season, she's within striking distance of the top three spots in the world.

Moreover, she's got the respect of her peers and the media because she's proven that she can not only reach the final of the Slams, but she can also come away with the titles when she gets there.

That puts her above and beyond Wozniacki, Zvonareva and Stosur, and into the class of elites with the Williams sisters, Schiavone, Kim Clijsters and Maria Sharapova.
It also gives further credence to the theory that the WTA is no longer a young woman's game owned by brash 19 year olds hitting laser beam serves and balancing modeling commitments.

From a WTA marketing standpoint, Li is officially solid gold because she comes from a country that, if you hadn't heard, has the No. 1 population in the world at 1.33 billion.

Not only does that mean bonzo television ratings and merchandise sales (just ask the Houston Rockets about their Yao Ming profit margins over the past decade), but with Li successful on the international stage, China will be hungry for more - more champions, more prestige, more proof that it can produce athletes that are the finest in the world.

When Chang won his French Open title in 1989, China was on the verge of civil chaos, with the seven-week protest at Tiananmen Square exploding into tragedy as the People's Liberation Army used live ammunition to clear the square, killing between hundreds and thousands of people.

Twenty-two years later, China is still largely closed to the outside world, but has taken better care of its citizens, and will pass the United States as the world's No. 1 economy by year's end.

No. 1 in the world is starting to be a fairly routine thing when it comes to China. Li hopes to follow suit.