PARIS — Which woman had the weight of China on her shoulders? It was easy to get confused on Saturday with Francesca Schiavone more on edge and off target than Li Na for much of the French Open final.

But Li, not Schiavone, was the long-aspiring veteran trying to become the first player from her country to win a Grand Slam singles title. And though that prospect could have been too much to bear, Li handled the occasion — a few shouts and dark looks excepted — with remarkable and unexpected poise.

After losing her first Grand Slam final at this year’s Australian Open, Li drew on that experience and kept her temper and baseline power under control. In the end, the only thing she lost complete command of was her balance.

After Schiavone’s final backhand landed long, Li fell to the clay on her back, dropped her racket and covered her eyes with her hands. “Dream come true,” Li said of her 6-4, 7-6 (0) victory. “In China, never have champion for the Grand Slam, so that’s why in China, so many players working so hard.”

But China is clearly no longer a future tennis power. Li and her compatriot Zheng Jie were once considered a platform generation capable of laying the groundwork for the singles champions to come. Instead, Li , a former badminton player with a sharp wit from Wuhan who once quit tennis for two years to attend college, ended up becoming that champion herself at an age — 29 — when many modern players have already declined.

At least that was how it used to work. Last year in Paris, Schiavone became the first Italian woman to win a Grand Slam title when she, too, was 29. The combined ages of the finalists Saturday made this the most mature women’s Grand Slam final in 13 years.

But that won’t be why it will be remembered. Chinese women have won Grand Slam doubles titles at the Australian Open and Wimbledon and at the 2004 Olympics, but singles is where the prestige resides in the contemporary game. Although tennis is not yet a sport for the masses in China and its population of 1.3 billion, a mass audience did see Li’s victory on the state sports channel CCTV-5.