China's tennis chief, Sun Jinfang, said the Chinese Tennis Association (CTA) did not make a cent from Australian Open semifinalists Li Na and Zheng Jie and the other self-managed players and used their contributions to support the nation's youth players.

The top four Chinese women players, who include Li and Zheng, left the state-support system to manage their own careers at the end of 2008, thanks to a groundbreaking "flying away" move. According to the contract reached between the players and the CTA, they still have to give eight percent of the prizemoney on the WTA tour or 12 percent of their marketing profits to the association. Previously, the portion was as high as 65 percent.

"The CTA does not want a cent from the players. The money they gave us previously went towards tennis development in China and is now being used to help young players train and develop," said Sun (pictured) during a party on Wednesday organized by the WTA tour to celebrate Li and Zheng's semifinal appearances at the Australian Open last month.

Sun revealed most of the self-managed players stopped giving money to the CTA after the move. Surprisingly, Sun, who used to take a tough line on the money issue and once blasted world No 51 Peng Shuai for complaining about handing over too much, said with a smile she and the CTA did not intend to push the players to handover earnings.

"It's up to them (to give or not) and we will never push them to do that although we know how much prizemoney they earn from the WTA tour. As for the marketing profits, they just gave me a figure.

"The reason for having such an item (concerning giving money to CTA) in their contracts is that we hope they can show gratitude and return something to the sport."

Li and Zheng received cheques amounting to almost 2.5 million yuan (US$360,000) each for reaching the last four at Melbourne Park.

Sun also lavished praise on Li and Zheng and put them in the same class as national sporting heroes Yao Ming and Liu Xiang.

"NBA, track and field and tennis are all mainstream sports. Li and Zheng's success has put China firmly on the world tennis map. Their achievements are equivalent to what Yao (basketball) and Liu (hurdles) have done."

Sun also took a bow for enacting the "flying away" move against "doubts, risks and pressure".

"You can't imagine the pressure and risks we faced since enacting that move," Sun told China Daily. "There were many doubts when we introduced the move in 2008."

The tennis chief said the initiative would serve as a model for other Chinese sports teams on the road to "professionalization".

"I think it can work for other sports in China," she said. "At the athletic level, sport in China is very strong but at the professional level it is poor.

"What we did in tennis could be an example of how to boost professional sports in China."