On New Year's Day 1982, Chinese tennis star, 18-year-old girl Hu Na, lifted the "White House Cup" more than a foot high. This was Chinese first time winning an international tennis tournament, and it became the most exciting event for all Chinese on New Year's Day that year.
Three months later, Hu Na once again represented the Chinese women's tennis team in the United States, and when people expected her to add glory to the country again, she stayed in the United States and never returned...
A tennis genius girl with invincible domestic players
Hu Na was born in a sports family in Sichuan Province, her maternal grandfather is a giant figure in the Chinese tennis industry, Wen Ling, the founder of Sichuan women's tennis, once won the doubles championship of men's tennis, and also defeated the Japanese tennis champion, is a solid tennis "national hero".
After the founding of New China, Wenling has been engaged in cultural and sports work, and under his influence, the second and third generations have entered the professional tennis team, and even several have become professional players in the Sichuan provincial team.
But Hu Na is different, although she comes from a tennis family, she has not liked to play tennis since she was a child. Before coming into contact with tennis, she learned to dance ballet, practiced gymnastics at a junior sports school, and had nothing to do with tennis. Until by chance, she picked up a tennis racket and played against the wall, playing hundreds of balls in a row.
All this was seen by his grandfather, who discovered Hu Na's unique talent for tennis, and since then, Hu Na has practiced tennis with her grandfather every day after school.
Although Wen Ling was over 60 years old at that time, in the eyes of Xiao Hu Na, his maternal grandfather was his idol.
Figure 丨 Young Hu Na
After that, Hu Na never left tennis. Perhaps Hu Na is really talented, and after only 5 years of study, Hu Na entered the junior team, and since then she has been out of control, all the way to the national team.
At that time, Chinese tennis players were only good at one style of play, and Wen Ling taught Hu Na many different styles of play. Under her grandfather's education, Hu Na always won easily in tennis, winning the national junior championship at the age of 15 and the adult category at the age of 16.
At that time, Hu Na had already played in many countries and was one of the first female tennis players on the mainland to go abroad to compete. Although the competition abroad was not as easy as at home and did not achieve good results, these experiences were eye-opening for Hu Na.
Years later, Hu Na vividly remembers the first time she saw the British Open tapes on television, and her desire to stand in the center of the game like the famous stars. In 1979, she had the privilege of attending a game on Centre Court and a seed has been planted in her heart ever since:
"I must stand on the central court to represent China!"
With the increasing number of overseas tournaments, Hu Na gradually learned about the situation in the world tennis world, and the points and rankings of tennis players every year, as well as the honors of winning Grand Slams, deeply attracted Hu Na. However, at that time, Chinese players could not play professional competitions at all, and the main training was to prepare for the National Games and Asian Games.
Even if I go abroad to compete, I go to several countries in Asia and play "friendly matches".
Figure 丨Hu Na on the field
Although Hu Na has been introverted since she was a child, she has a strength in her bones that does not admit defeat and is very assertive. With fewer and fewer opponents at home, Hu Na began to dream of playing professional matches like foreign players. Constantly challenging the players ranked ahead of her and hitting the Grand Slam is more fulfilling for Hu Na than winning the championship in China.
In 1979, as China regained its seat on the International Olympic Committee, sports also resumed eligibility for individual competitions. Two years later, the Chinese tennis team participated in the Confederations Cup tennis tournament in Tokyo for the first time and advanced to the top 16.
Later, in the semifinals of the "White House Cup", Hu Na's opponent was 17 minutes late for no reason, and if she was 5 minutes late, she was treated as a waiver. Hu Na could have won the final without much effort, but the opponent's coach pointed at Hu Na and said:
"Do you Chinese want to rely on our abstention to get the final?"
This sentence directly infuriated Hu Na, who took off her coat and took on the field with her late opponent, and won the victory and fought for the nation.
She also proved her strength by winning the women's doubles title in this tournament.
Picture丨Hu Na holds the "White House Cup"
Hu Na's dazzling performance attracted the attention of Americans, and the United States Tennis Association sent a letter to China, inviting Hu Na to train in the United States.
No one thought how much influence this invitation would have on Hu Na and Chinese tennis...
The bumpy experience after leaving the United States
After the "White House Cup", the Chinese women's tennis team left for the United States to continue to compete. In view of the "importance" of the United States to Hu Na, the Chinese side had hesitation about Hu Na going abroad to compete, but in order to achieve a good result, the National Sports Commission decided to let Hu Na go with the team.
According to the instructions of the National Sports Commission, after arriving in the United States, the Chinese team will train together as much as possible, eat together, and achieve "collectivization of all actions."
After the first round, the Chinese team eliminated the Japanese team by an absolute advantage, and everyone was looking forward to Hu Na playing better in the next match against Germany. On the day before the game, the team manager and coach also specially chatted with Hu Na to let her relax and prepare for the next day's game.
Hu Na holding a trophy
The next morning, everyone did not see Hu Na when they were eating breakfast, and after waiting for a few minutes and not seeing anyone, they asked Li Xinyi, who was in the same house, to call, and Li Xinyi said that he didn't see Hu Na when he got up in the morning, probably going to the garden for a run.
After a long time, there was no figure of Hu Na, and the leader hurriedly sent someone to the room to see, only to get a reply that "there is no one in the room." ”
At this time, everyone was anxious, and hurriedly went to look for it, but they couldn't find Hu Na's shadow at all. After everyone went to Hu Na's room, they found that the futon was almost untouched, and her luggage and racket were still in the room, and everyone finally realized that Hu Na had run away.
Later, Hu Na informed the organizing committee of the competition through her lawyer, and asked them to convey to the team leader and coach, saying that she was safe outside, so that they did not have to look for it anymore, and that she had decided to stay in the United States.
Hu Na's unexpected departure greatly affected the emotions of other team members. Originally, the Chinese team and the German team still had to fight, but finally lost to the German team, and then decided not to participate in the consolation match, and then set off to return to the motherland.
Hu Na's first few years in the United States were not satisfactory, and the first thing to solve was the problem of food and accommodation. At first, she lived in the home of a Chinese friend in the United States for a few years, and spent the most difficult years. Because of her lack of status, Hu Na could not play until she received a "green card" in the United States a year later, and she picked up a tennis racket again.
Before leaving the United States, Hu Na was China's number one women's tennis player, and when she arrived in the United States, she had to start from the bottom and follow the development path of professional players step by step. Hu Na was ranked 209th in the world in 1983 and promoted to 96th two years later, while also qualifying for professional competition.
Picture 丨Hu Na on the tennis court
At that time, in the international arena, people often saw Hu Na's lonely figure. When she stood on the center court for the first time, Hu Na was very excited, when she heard someone shouting "Hu Na, come on!" in Chinese! Hu Na's tears almost fell.
Hu Na had a good time that year, reaching not only the third round of Wimbledon, but also semifinals of two tournaments in California, winning nearly $15,000 in prize money. People are also gradually turning their attention from talking about her departure to tennis.
As the first Chinese player in the world women's professional tennis tournament at that time, Hu Na wanted to prove her ability, but due to injuries and increasing age, Hu Na's form was greatly reduced, and her career best ranking entered the world's top 50 and won an international women's tennis doubles championship.
In 1992, the 29-year-old Hu Na completely bid farewell to the court due to injury, she was a top 20 goal in the world, and she did not reach it until she retired, but she confessed that she has no regrets, and in her 8-year career, she has participated in 16 majors.
After retiring, Hu Na chose to enter the university, study business management, and obtained the international tennis coaching qualification. Later, she also bought a house in the United States and took her parents to live with her in the United States. In 1996, Hu Na moved to Taiwan as a tennis consultant, and later founded the "Hu Na Bitan Tennis Club" by herself, realizing another dream of her own.
Since 2000, Hu Na has been selecting girls in Taiwan for training and has achieved a lot of results in the international arena. In the summer of 2008, she also returned to Beijing with the female players she had personally cultivated to participate in the national youth competition, although the results were not very satisfactory, but Hu Na was also very satisfied.
Figure 丨 Hu Na personally guided the young athletes
On that trip to Beijing, Hu Na found the old team leader and the old coach again, and the 26-year grudge and worry dissipated on that day, and the old team leader even jokingly asked Hu Na:
"If I was still the team leader in that game, would you go?"
The reason for the departure was made public years later
As for the reason for Hu Na's departure back then, everyone has been unclear for so many years. At that time, the organization still attached great importance to Hu Na, although there were few domestic competitions, but no matter how big or small the competition had to take her, and the state also gave her a salary increase, basically gave her treatment.
In 2003, when interviewed by reporters, Hu Na did not evade leaving the United States at all, and revealed the reasons for leaving the United States that year.
At that time, Hu Na wanted to become a professional tennis player, her technical level in China could not continue to improve, and she was not allowed to train abroad, seeing that her dream of becoming a professional player was getting farther and farther away, Hu Na made the decision to leave:
"I was too young, too simple, too immature."
Figure 丨 Hu Na and the squad members she cultivated
Later, Hu Na's former doubles partner Li Xinyi also confirmed Hu Na's mentality at that time, and after Hu Na heard that she was not allowed to be sent to the United States for training, she secretly asked Li Xinyi: "The country does not allow me to go, how about we find sponsorship to go to the United States?" ”
It can be seen that the attraction of the invitation letter to Hu Na back then, for Hu Na at that time, the opportunity missed was equivalent to completely cutting off her way to becoming a professional player.
But what Hu Na did not expect was that after her departure, China became more and more open, and more and more elite athletes went abroad to train. The Chinese Tennis Association was also determined to carry out a major reform, and Hu Na's partner Li Xinyi went to the United States to train soon after she left.
Many years later, the leader of the team revealed the secret, and at that time received an invitation letter from the United States, China and the United States had actually negotiated, in addition to Hu Na, there were three female team members who could go together, and the United States also agreed. However, it coincided with the Asian Games at the end of that year, and the two sides negotiated the Asian Games before going:
"We didn't announce it before we made the trip at that time, so Hu Na didn't know about it, and thought we wouldn't let her go, and then something happened later."
Figure 丨 Hu Na now
In 2011, Hu Na returned to the mainland as a commentator to explain the "Li Na and Friends" charity competition held by Li Na in Wuhan. This is her first live commentary on the game of Chinese players, looking at the beautiful diamond field, Hu Na can't help but sigh:
"Such a beautiful court, we would never have imagined that China would have such a beautiful tennis court in a few decades." In 1980, we played in Hefei, and there was no lighted court at night, so we played basketball games, and the tennis line was temporarily drawn. We played against the Hubei team, played for 3 hours, couldn't get out of bounds, and later found that the stadium was bigger. After the fight, everyone had cramps. It's funny to think about it now, but it was really hard at the time. ”
It was in 2011 that Hu Na's life entered its second stage.
Hu Na never thought that her hands holding tennis rackets could still pick up a paintbrush. According to Hu Na's recollection, she had a dream in which the racket she wielded turned into a long paintbrush, and when she woke up, she returned to her birthplace, and a strong desire to paint suddenly welled up in her heart.
Finally, Hu Na picked up the brush and completed a big turning point in her life and became an oil painter.
Figure 丨Hu Na holding a paintbrush
Hu Na's tempering of tennis training has created her unique painting style, and her concentration and perseverance in tennis training have also been used by her in the painting process. Her first painting was her beloved tennis ball.
In 2014, Hu Na and two close friends held a joint exhibition in Beijing, where she selected 12 of her more than 100 works to present to the audience. This was the first time Hu Na had been exhibited in mainland China since her transformation into a painter, but it also caused great controversy.