“I’m not old,” she said. “Why do you think I’m old?”
Well, in tennis years, at least, Li is old. She is 29. And her opponent in the final, Francesca Schiavone of Italy, is even older. Schiavone was 29 when she won here a year ago, becoming the oldest first-time women’s Grand Slam winner since professionals began competing in 1968.
The Li-Schiavone final captures a shift that is under way in women’s tennis. The days of child stars like Tracy Austin, Monica Seles and Jennifer Capriati appear to be in the past. The top players are getting older.
For a record sixth major in a row, each finalist is at least 25.
With a combined age of 60 years 79 days, Li and Schiavone make up the oldest French Open final pairing since 1986, when Chris Evert beat Martina Navratilova (61 years 37 days combined). They are the fifth oldest pairing in any Grand Slam women’s final.
Now, they are placed in the odd position of having to explain, if not defend, why older players are dominating the biggest events in a sport long recognized for its teenage sensations. No matter who wins, the average age of the women’s winner of the last 12 Grand Slam tournaments will be close to 28.
“Age just paper,” said Li, seeded sixth and trying to become the first player from Asia, man or woman, to win a Grand Slam event. “It’s just plus one.”
Schiavone, who speaks with a flair and imagination that accent her game, has faced the questions two years in a row. Last year she was seeded 17th. She is fifth this time.
“Is like the wine,” she said. “Stay in the bottle more is much, much better.”
Navratilova, 54, has watched the re-emergence of the older set. “You will see players excelling more between the ages of 25 and 30 than from 20 to 25,” she said Friday. “Everything’s getting older, and the players take a little bit longer to mature, perhaps. I don’t know how much of it has to do with the sport, and how much has to do with the setup.”
Physically, players of all ages are stronger than ever in a game now dominated by big-hitting baseliners. Even the sturdiest of teenage players struggle against veterans who have made fitness a years-long priority.
Mentally, experienced players are accustomed to the grind of the travel and the pressure of the big tournaments. Younger players are surrounded by entourages — families, coaches, trainers — designed to make them better. Navratilova wondered if that is not the case.
“They don’t have to mature because they don’t have to fend for themselves,” Navratilova said. “I was flying around the world by myself when I was 17 years old, booking everything myself. Getting myself to and from airports and cities and practices and all that. I didn’t have a coach until I was 25, and that teaches you have to be self-reliant.”
The last teenager to win a Grand Slam was Maria Sharapova, who was 19 when she won the 2006 United States Open. Before that, tennis was lined with teenage champions. Now, it is at least as likely that Grand Slam winners will be over 30 as under 20.
“It’ll level off somewhere,” Navratilova said. “I don’t think you’ll see people win Slams at 35, but 30 is not the cutoff point that it used to be.”
When Evert defeated Navratilova at Roland Garros 25 years ago, Evert won the 18th and final Grand Slam singles title of her career. Navratilova had 13, on her way to 18.
They dominated women’s tennis for much of a decade. That they remain the second-oldest singles pairing in women’s Grand Slam history (trailing Virginia Wade and Betty Stove, an even 64 years combined, at the 1977 Wimbledon) speaks to their career longevity. They were young stars once, too, occasionally and finally relenting to others, like Austin, Steffi Graf, Monica Seles, Capriati, the Williamses, Martina Hingis and Sharapova.
The women’s tour implemented age-eligibility restrictions in the mid-1990’s, including a rule that prohibits players younger than 14 from competing on the tour.
Li did not play her first major tournament until she was 22, and her rise through the rankings was steady and slow, until she could not be ignored. Now on her way to the top five, her ranking has climbed four years in a row, all since her mid-20s.
Schiavone, who will turn 31 on June 23, spent most of her 20s ranked in the top 40 but was seen as a small, 5-foot-5 all-court throwback stuck in the wrong era. Still, Navratilova told Schiavone years ago that she was good enough to win a Grand Slam.
She did not reach the semifinals of one until last year’s French Open romp.
“Francesca could have been better earlier,” Navratilova said. “I think she just didn’t believe in herself that much. Then she finally realized, yeah, I can play with the best of them. Now you can’t stop her. You need a bloody bulldozer to hold her back.”
Li and Schiavone might represent the making of a trend toward older players, but they are still relative anomalies.
Serena Williams (5 major victories in the last 12 tournaments), Clijsters (3) and Venus Williams (1) and Svetlana Kuznetsova (1) all won Grand Slam events under the age of 25, too. They did not need all those years to mature into great players.
But they have crowded out the rest of the field, like the current No. 1, Caroline Wozniacki, a 20-year-old Dane.
The true test of the trend will come over the next 12 events, or the 12 after that, if and when the Williams sisters and Clijsters retire for good. Maybe that will create the room for younger stars like Wozniacki, Victoria Azarenka and others to show that youth can prevail again.
Of course, they will be older, too. But not old.
This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: June 3, 2011
An earlier caption for the photo in this article incorrectly identified the tennis player on the right. Her name is Li Na, not Na Li.