Li Na’s painful streak continues, Marbury wins 2nd CBA title

Li Na has probably never before been compared to the Xinjiang Flying Tigers, but there’s a first time for everything. Both are on losing streaks they just can’t do anything about.

As usual, Li Na holds the smaller trophy

Li has now lost 10 matches in a row against Serena Williams, which would appear to be a slight problem in her quest to overtake the world number 1.

From this week’s Sports Talk column:

Li’s record against the American is now 1-11 and she has lost 10 straight matches. But she’s in excellent company: Maria Sharapova has lost her last 15 matches against Williams, and the current top 10 are a combined 11-74 against her, with four of those players having never beaten Williams.

Li may well win more Grand Slam titles – Williams still loses a match occasionally, and the two will likely be placed in the opposite half of tournament draws – but it doesn’t appear Li will ever dominate her opponent on court. Williams remains her own biggest opponent. For Li, that’s a depressing truth, but it’s the unfortunate reality.

In other words, it says more about Serena’s dominance than it does about Li Na, who just became the first Chinese player to reach the final of a Premier Mandatory WTA event (i.e. the level just below the Slams).

Meanwhile, the Xinjiang Flying Tigers keep reaching the CBA Finals – and keep losing. They have now lost in the finals four times in six years, after Stephon Marbury and the Beijing Ducks completed a 4-2 series win, during which five of the six games – including the decider – were won by the visitors.

Stephon Marbury crying. A lot.

As Beijing Cream points out, it was Beijing’s other foreigner Randolph Morris and not Stephon Marbury who won the MVP award, but Marbury still gets all the headlines, basically because he’s Marbury (the tears, the shoes, the statue, the haters, the BS and the lovers, etc.).

Bad news for the Tigers, then, though they probably have a better chance of ending their losing streak than Li Na, even though they will have to wait at least one more year to do so.