Na Li
Alias: Li Na
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| Bio | She achieved a career-high WTA-ranking of world No. 2 on 17 February 2014. Over the course of her career, Li won nine WTA singles titles including two Grand Slam singles titles at the 2011 French Open and 2014 Australian Open. Li's rise to prominence came after those victories, which made her the first Grand Slam singles champion from Asia. Prior to this, she was the first player representing an Asian country to appear in a Grand Slam singles final, a milestone she achieved at the 2011 Australian Open. Li was also the runner-up at the 2013 Australian Open and 2013 WTA Tour Championships, a three-time quarterfinalist at Wimbledon and a semifinalist at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games and 2013 US Open. Among her other most notable accolades, she was the first Chinese player to win a WTA tour title at the Guangzhou International Women's Open in 2004, the first to reach a Grand Slam singles quarterfinal at the 2006 Wimbledon Championships, and the first to break into the world's top 10. Her feats have sparked a major population growth of tennis players in East Asia, earning her the reputation as the region's tennis pioneer and trailblazer. At age six, Li followed her father's footsteps and started playing badminton, which honed her reflexes. Just before she turned eight, Li was persuaded to switch to tennis by coach Xia Xiyao of the Wuhan youth tennis club. Her instructors taught tennis through negative reinforcement, which affected Li's confidence in later years. Li joined China's National Tennis Team in 1997. The following year, Li, sponsored by Nike, went to John Newcombe Academy in Texas to study tennis. She studied there for 10 months and returned to China. Growing up, her favorite tennis player was Andre Agassi. She turned professional in 1999 at the age of sixteen. At the end of 2002, Li left the national tennis team to study part-time at Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST), where she completed her bachelor's degree in journalism in 2009. The Chinese media cited various reasons for this. Some reported that the relationship between her and her teammate and future husband, Jiang Shan (姜山), was opposed by the national team's management, some reported that her coach, Yu Liqiao (余丽桥), was too strict and demanding, while other reports claimed that her request for a personal coach did not go through. However, some regarded that it was just the health problem leading to the retirement. The New York Times reported that one of the reasons was that a team leader wanted her to play through by taking hormone medicine as Li struggled with her performance due to hormone imbalance. Li returned to the national team in 2004. Jiang Shan married Li on 27 January 2006, and became her personal coach. 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 Solo" (单飞) by Chinese media. As a result, Li had the freedom to hire her own coaching staff and she would be solely responsible for the cost of training and coaching and tour expense. She could keep more of her winnings, with only 8 percent of her winnings going to the Chinese Tennis Association development fund as opposed to 65 percent previously. In the summer of 2012, the requirement of contribution to the Chinese tennis development fund was lifted and Li kept all her prize money. Li retired from professional tennis on 19 September 2014. On 5 June 2016, Li Na was commissioned by Special Olympics as a Global Ambassador. On 19 January 2015, Li Na announced that she and her husband were expecting their first child. She gave birth to her daughter Alisa on 3 June 2015, a day out from the 4th anniversary of her French Open win. |
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