As she continues her steady climb up the rankings, Fang Li might
want to invest in a daily planner. Li, perhaps the best tennis
player ever from mainland China, had to be reminded by the WTA
that she was in the singles as well as the doubles of a USTA
Challenger tournament in Mahwah, N.J. "When they told me I was in
the singles draw, it was O.K. with me," said Li, who two years
ago moved from Hunan province to Queens less than an hour from
Mahwah. "It's good because I can go home every day."
Relying on penetrating ground strokes and a deceptively strong
serve, Li, 25, cruised through her half of the draw then got
another surprise: The winner of last Friday's final between Li
and Amy Frazier would receive an automatic spot in the A&P
Classic, an exhibition tournament also going on in Mahwah (and
featuring players such as Steffi Graf and Jana Novotna, who had
been lured to the event with six-figure appearance fees). "No one
told me," Li said. "Well, it's good practice."
Li's confusion about her schedule continued. Thinking that her
match with Frazier was at 2:30 p.m., instead of 11:30 a.m., Li
arrived at 1, by which time tournament officials had declared
Frazier the winner. When Li was given the news, she began
screaming and crying. "Maybe my English is not good," she said.
"I don't know who made the mistake."
The situation grew even more preposterous. Frazier said that she,
too, hadn't realized that the winner of the Challenger tournament
was supposed to advance to the exhibition; citing a "bad hand,"
she declined to move on.
"It's not like we said the tournament winner had to walk across
the George Washington Bridge naked," said John Korff, the
tournament director, who was already exasperated by the
withdrawals of Anna Kournikova and Mirjana Lucic. "The winner got
a chance to play Steffi Graf in a sold-out stadium and make a
bunch of extra money. It sounds like a pretty good deal to me."
Li got the call and this time she not only was punctual but also
won the first set, 6-3, displaying the savvy shotmaking that has
helped her reach No. 42 in the rankings. Graf won the match, but
Li pocketed $5,000 and was thankful for the chance. "It was
good, because I had never played her," Li said. "But maybe I was
a little tired because it was such a crazy week."
Issue date: July 27, 1998
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