Li Na (born February 26, 1982) is a Chinese professional tennis player. Li has won 5 WTA and 19 ITF singles titles. She is currently ranked World No. 4 by WTA.
Li won the 2011 French Open singles title, making her the first player who represents an Asian country to win a Grand Slam in singles. With her performance at the 2011 Australian Open, Li is also the first player of an Asian nation to reach a Grand Slam final.
Li Na was born on February 26, 1982, in Wuhan, Hubei, China. Her father Li Shengpeng (李盛鹏) was an amateur badminton player who could not turn professional because of the Cultural Revolution; he died from cardiovascular disease when Li Na was 14.
When Li was 6 years old, she became a badminton player, but her coach kept noticing that she looked as if she were playing tennis. By the time she was 8, her coach asked her parents if she could switch to tennis, which she did at the age of 9. Li joined China's National Tennis Team in 1997 and turned pro in 1999.
At the end of 2002, Li left the national tennis team to study at Huazhong University of Science and Technology, where she completed her bachelor degree in journalism in 2009. The Chinese media mostly cited the conflict between her and the national team as the reason she quit. Some reported that the relationship between her and her teammate, future husband Jiang Shan (姜山), was opposed by the national team, some reported that her national coach Yu Liqiao (余丽桥) was too strict towards her and her teammates, which was claimed by Li afterwards,others reported that she asked for a personal coach rather than a shared coach but was rejected.
However, Li returned to the national team in 2004. Jiang Shan married Li and became her personal coach in 2006. Li quit the national team as well as the state-run sports system in 2008 under an experimental reform policy for tennis players. This change was called "Fly Alone" (单飞) by Chinese media. Li became free to select her own coaches and she kept more of her winnings. Now, 8–12% of her winnings go to the government; previously, it was 65 percent.
Between 1999 and 2004, Li won 20 women's singles titles: 19 ITF events and one—the first ever won by a Chinese woman—on the WTA Tour. In January 2008, she won her second WTA Tour title after a drought of over three and a quarter years.
Li also frequently enters doubles tournaments at events alongside singles, and has won two WTA doubles titles and 16 further ITF doubles events. Her early success in doubles came mostly with Li Ting (no relation); but more recently she has made a habit of forming temporary women's doubles partnerships with players with whom she has previously enjoyed a healthy rivalry through repeated head-to-head meetings in singles tournaments, notably Liu Nan-Nan, Nicole Pratt, Yan Zi, Jelena Janković, and Peng Shuai.
Her career has been plagued by injuries and other troubles that have prevented her from playing for lengthy periods. She suffered a two-year hiatus from competition in her early 20s, lost several months at the height of the 2005 season to an ankle injury, and lost the second half of 2007 to a rib injury.
Li played in 2011 Medibank International Sydney as the #8 seed, making fast work with Australian wildcard Anastasia Rodionova 6–1, 6–2 and winning a tough three-set match against Virginie Razzano 6–4, 1–6, 6–4 in the first two rounds. In the quarterfinals she met two time Grand Slam winner Svetlana Kuznetsova and came through with a 3–6, 7–6(4), 6–0 win. She defeated surprise qualifier Bojana Jovanovski in the semifinals 7–6(5), 6–3 to advance to her eighth WTA final. Li faced World #3 Kim Clijsters in the final, and despite trailing 5–0 in the first set, Li would go on to defeat Clijsters 7–6, 6–3.
Li was the 9th seed at the 2011 Australian Open, where she reached her first Grand Slam singles final. On her way there, she ousted the No. 8 seed Victoria Azarenka in straight sets, 6–3 6–3. She then defeated world No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki in the semi-finals to reach her first Grand Slam final after saving a match point in the second set, 3–6 7–5 6–3. She became the first Chinese player to reach a Grand Slam singles final, facing No. 3 seed Kim Clijsters (whom she defeated at the Medibank International). Although Li claimed the first set, Clijsters was able to rally back and claim the championship, winning 3–6, 6–3, 6–3. Despite the loss, Li's ranking rose to a career high of world #7.
Despite a good early start to the season, Li then had a 5 match losing streak after her loss in the final of the Australian Open, she lost in the first round of 2011 Dubai Tennis Championships and 2011 Qatar Ladies Open. After a receiving bye in the first round, she lost in the second round of 2011 BNP Paribas Open. Despite this, after Indian Wells she will reach a career high ranking of World #6 due to Jelena Jankovic's failures to defend her points.
Li's losing streak then continued when she was upset in the 2011 Sony Ericsson Open by Swede Johanna Larsson 5–7, 7–6(5), 6–7(5). With this loss, and Andy Murray's loss at Miami, both Australian Open finalists have yet to win a match since the first Grand Slam. Despite Li's successive losses, her #6 Ranking was ensured due to Samantha Stosur's inability to defend her clay season points. After a week, she fell back to #7. Li then broke her losing streak by winning her first round match against Anastasija Sevastova in Stuttgart, 6–2, 6–3. However, she subsequently lost to Sabine Lisicki in the second round, 4–6, 5–7. Even, though she was not able to defend all her Stuttgart ranking points,she rose back to #6, with Samantha Stosur's inability to defend her own Stuttgart points. However with her disappointing results Li Na sacked her husband as coach and hired the Dane Michael Mortensen.
She entered the 2011 Mutua Madrid Open as sixth seed. In first two rounds, she defeated María José Martínez Sánchez 6–4, 7–6(6), and Iveta Benešová 6–1, 6–4. In the third round she defeated Roberta Vinci 2–6, 6–2, 6–1 coming back from a set deficit. She defeated Bethanie Mattek-Sands 6–4, 3–6, 6–4, coming back from, 3–4, one break down in the deciding set. This victory marked her the first semifinals appearance in Madrid, where she eventually lost to Petra Kvitová 3–6, 1–6.
Li's resurgence continued in 2011 Internazionali BNL d'Italia. Seeded 4th, she received a bye in the first round. She won her opening match against Lourdes Domínguez Lino 6–4, 6–2. She defeated Jarmila Gajdošová 6–2, 6–1, and Gréta Arn 6–3, 6–1 in the next two rounds en route to her back-to-back semifinals on clay court.However, she lost to Samantha Stosur 7–6(6), 6–0.
Li won her first Grand Slam title and become the first Grand Slam singles champion born in an Asian country at the 2011 French Open. Seeded 6th, she defeated Barbora Záhlavová-Strýcová, Silvia Soler Espinosa, Sorana Cîrstea, 9th seed Petra Kvitova, 4th seed Victoria Azarenka, 7th seed Maria Sharapova and 5th seed and defending champion Francesca Schiavone in the final. After the match, Li Na was praised by the Chinese media and her popularity throughout China is expected to grow significantly in the following months, as she became the first ever Chinese singles player to win a tennis Grandslam title. Following the French Open, Li reached a career high ranking of World No. 4.
As the 2nd seed at the 2011 AEGON International, Li fell in the second round to Daniela Hantuchova.
Due to the withdrawal of Kim Clijsters, Li was the 3rd seed at the 2011 Wimbledon Championships. She beat Alla Kudryavtseva in the first round. She lost in the second round to Sabine Lisicki of Germany 3–6, 6–4, 8–6.
Li turned professional in 1999, and that year won three of the very first four singles tournaments she entered on the ITF Circuit, two at Shenzhen and one at Westende, Belgium. She also won all seven of the first seven ITF doubles tournaments she entered.
In 2000, she won a total of 52 singles matches on the ITF circuit, more than any other player, notching another eight tournament titles including one at $50,000 level, two at $25,000, and an unbroken run of four successive $10,000 tournament wins in March and April.
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