Champion Li glad she came back to the sport

French Open champion Li Na could so easily have slipped away from tennis but the first Chinese player to win a grand slam singles title was glad she stuck to the task after adding 500,000 followers to her blog in hours.

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Her 6-4, 7-6 triumph over last year's winner Francesca Schiavone of Italy gained her a huge new fanbase in the world's most populous nation and she reckoned the number of people on her webchat had jumped from to two million from 1.5 million.

"Thanks to all my fans who support me. Enjoy the day," Li told a small group of reporters as she tapped away on a laptop chatting with supporters via the Internet.

The 29-year-old took two years out from tennis to pursue a career in journalism and when she returned a series of knee operations hampered her progress.

She only fell into tennis in the first place because of pressure from her family, who at first had earmarked her for badminton.

"My parents pushed me for two years, I was tired, I didn't like it," she said.

"But I love the tennis life, that's why I came back," she added.

Li only got into sport at all because of her ambitious father, who died when she was 14.

"I was young and fat so my family wanted me to stay healthy," added a smiling Li.

Tennis was largely alien to the Chinese when Li was young but in the end it has made her one of the country's most famous names.

"When I was young tennis in China was not so popular. We couldn't see it on TV," she said.

"If I didn't play tennis, I would have lost everything," she added.