When Li Na was a girl, tennis was often an objectionable chore. Training was grueling, her coaches berated her, and sometimes she hated it.

Later, when she dared to stand up against the Chinese government-run tennis program by demanding the right to make the choices about her own career, she faced withering criticism and attacks in state-owned media outlets, while others doubted her playing ability.

On Saturday, Li’s perseverance and pioneering courage will be recognized with the highest honor in her profession: induction into the International Tennis Hall of Fame.

She will be the first Asian-born player enshrined, but one ceremony cannot encapsulate all Li endured to reach the top of the tennis world and make a country pay attention to a sport that was mostly unknown when she started playing it.