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Li Na met the press
after her Australian Open triumph.
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Li Na, a two-time Grand Slam
champion from China who took tennis in Asia to a new level, has announced her
retirement.
Li Na single-handedly
sparked a tennis revolution in Asia and became one of the world's most
successful athletes thanks to her fierce determination to overcome the odds. The
straight-talking, wise-cracking Li earned an army of fans when she became the
first Asian national to win a Grand Slam singles title at the French Open in
2011. When she added a second Slam title at the Australian Open in January, her
legacy was complete and the touchpaper had been lit for tennis to take off
across the continent, according to AP/TOI.
Li, 32, said she would
forever be proud of her influence in popularising tennis in China, and beyond,
as she announced her retirement Friday after a series of debilitating knee
injuries.
Li posted the news on her
microblog Friday, citing a recurring knee problem. She only entered seven
tournaments after that, and hasn't played since a third-round defeat at
Wimbledon. She withdrew from three tournaments in August, including the U.S.
Open, citing a right knee injury.
Asian trailblazer Li Na
Following is a factbox on
twice grand slam champion Li Na, who announced her retirement from tennis on
Friday
MAKING HER NAME
Born Feb 26, 1982 in Wuhan,
China
Like many elite Chinese
athletes, Li was hand-picked to train with the country's Soviet-style sports
system aged nine but was initially identified as a badminton player before
being moved into tennis.
Li spent much of her career
clashing with China's tennis administration over pay, training and national
duty, and gave up the game for a period to study media at university.
CHINESE TRAILBLAZER
She returned to the tour in
2004 to capture the first WTA title for China in Guangzhou, and became the
first Chinese to reach a grand slam quarter-final at Wimbledon in 2006.
Li struggled with injuries
during 2007-08, and missed out on a bronze medal at the Beijing Olympics, but
began to play her best tennis from 2009 after being permitted to manage her own
career and training with a handful of other top women players in a landmark
decision by China's tennis association.
She advanced to a second
grand slam quarter-final at the 2009 U.S. Open, and a maiden major semi-final
at the 2010 Australian Open, which made her the first Chinese player to crack
the top 10.
She became the first Chinese
to reach a grand slam singles final at the 2011 Australian Open, losing to Kim
Clijsters.
ASIAN TRAILBLAZER - TWO
GRAND SLAM TITLES
The late-blooming Li
captured the 2011 French Open title at the age of 29, where she defeated
Francesca Schiavone to become the first Asian to win a grand slam singles
title.
Aged 31, she captured a
second grand slam title at the 2014 Australian Open by defeating Slovakia's
Dominika Cibulkova. The win spurred Li to make one of the most hilarious
victory speeches in tennis when she thanked her long-suffering husband Jiang
Shan for "fixing the drinks" and her agent for "making me
rich".
The following month she
achieved the highest ever singles ranking achieved by an Asian when she climbed
to number two in the world.
GLOBAL BRAND
In May 2013, Li graced the
cover of Time magazine featuring the 100 most influential people in the world.
She was also named in the Top 100 'highest paid
athletes' for 2013 by Forbes magazine
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