Nails speaks out against the Chinese system:
Li, China's second highest ranked player at 31 in the world with career earnings of over $1.6 million, said she would never have even pursued tennis if sports chiefs had not forced her to.
"If I had an opportunity to choose what I wanted to do in childhood, I wouldn't have gone for tennis," Li told the China Daily newspaper.
"It is a sport that I was always pushed to do, first by my parents, then provincial and national sports administrators."
China's leading female tennis players broke ground last year by escaping from the administrators that had previously governed their careers, and Li called for athletes in other sports to enjoy similar freedoms.
"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," said Li, aged 27.
"It is very important for us to have the right to choose. I really mean it."
China's top-ranked female tennis players only won the right to manage their own careers and keep a greater share of their prize money after repeated protests.
Peng Shuai, ranked 35, had threatened to quit the national team unless their demands were met.
Since abandoning the state-supported system, Li has returned from a knee injury and climbed back into the world's top 50 while compatriot Zheng Jie has achieved a career-high ranking of 16.
Nails rules. There's never been any question about that. To have the balls to speak out against the system and against your communist government, especially as a woman, is courageous stuff. You have to wonder what she's got on the government that prevents them from coming after her.
Guess #1: The real birth certificates of the ridiculously underaged Chinese gymanasts.
Guess #2: Proof that Yao Ming is a robot.
Guess #3: The Chinese handbook entitled "Shit we have to cover up before the westerners get here for the Olympics but don't worry we'll revert back to it as soon as they leave."
