BEIJING: Outspoken Chinese tennis star Li Na has called for an overhaul of the nation's famously rigid sports program to give athletes the right to pursue their careers without strict government controls.

Li, China's second highest ranked player at 31 in the world with career earnings of over 1.6 million dollars, 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 in comments published Wednesday.

"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.

China's sporting system remains largely modelled on the old communist structure, where children are identified at a young age for a certain sport, then funnelled into government programmes to fulfil their talents.

They often have to leave home to live and train with provincial or national teams, then give a large share of their prize-money to the sports administrations and coaches that have looked after them.

The model has been unquestionably successful, with China topping the gold medal count at last year's Beijing Olympics, but has drawn criticism at home and abroad for focusing on results rather than the welfare of athletes.

The state-run China Daily on Wednesday even described the traditional system as "overbearing and rigid," and said it had not worked for some sports, such as tennis and basketball.