Li Na
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Li Na (born 26 February 1982) is a Chinese former professional
tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...
player. She was ranked world No. 2 in women's singles by the
Women's Tennis Association The Women's Tennis Association (WTA) is the principal organizing body of women's professional tennis. The association governs the WTA Tour, which is the worldwide professional tennis tour for women, and was founded to create a better future fo ...
. Li won nine
WTA Tour The WTA Tour (also known as the Hologic WTA Tour for sponsorship reasons) is a worldwide top-tier tennis tour for women and organized by the Women's Tennis Association. The second-tier tour is the WTA 125 series, and third-tier is the ITF Wome ...
-level singles titles, including two
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s at the 2011 French Open and
2014 Australian Open The 2014 Australian Open was a tennis tournament that took place at Melbourne Park between 13 and 26 January 2014. It was the 102nd edition of the Australian Open, and the first Grand Slam tournament of the year. The tournament consisted of eve ...
. Those victories made her the first major singles champion from Asia, male or female. She was also the runner-up at the 2011 Australian Open,
2013 Australian Open The 2013 Australian Open was a tennis tournament that took place in Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Australia, from 14 to 27 January 2013. It was the 101st edition of the Australian Open, and the first Grand Slam event of the year. The tournament c ...
, and the 2013 WTA Tour Championships. A trailblazer for
tennis in China Tennis is a rapidly growing sport that has received much private and public support in China, and has today become firmly entrenched in the Chinese as one of the most popular. Tennis is now the third-most popular sport on television in China, be ...
, Li was the first Chinese player to win a WTA Tour title at the
Guangzhou International Women's Open The Guangzhou Open (formerly the Guangzhou International Women's Open) is a tennis tournament held in Guangzhou, People's Republic of China. Held since 2004, the inaugural tournament had Li Na Li Na (born 26 February 1982) is a Chinese forme ...
in 2004, the first to reach a major singles quarterfinal at the 2006 Wimbledon Championships, the first to reach a major singles final, and the first to break into the world's top ten. By 2013, her accomplishments had made her the most successful Asian tennis player of her time, landing her on ''
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'' magazine's list of 100 Most Influential People in the World. Former world No. 1
Chris Evert Christine Marie Evert (born December 21, 1954) is an American former professional tennis player. One of the most successful players of all time, she was ranked as the world No. 1 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) for 2 ...
wrote there: "Tennis has exploded in China. The country now has some 15 million tennis players; 116 million watched Li win the French Open. That kind of exposure is crucial to our sport, and it never would have happened without Li." Li retired from tennis in September 2014, at age 32. In 2019, she was inducted into the
International Tennis Hall of Fame The International Tennis Hall of Fame is located in Newport, Rhode Island, United States. It honors both players and other contributors to the sport of tennis. The complex, the former Newport Casino, includes a museum, 13 grass tennis courts, an ...
, becoming the first Asian player to receive this honor.


Tennis career

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 Nike often refers to: * Nike, Inc., a major American producer of athletic shoes, apparel, and sports equipment * Nike (mythology), a Greek goddess who personifies victory Nike may also refer to: People * Nike (name), a surname and feminine giv ...
, went to John Newcombe Academy in Texas to study tennis. She studied there for ten months and returned to China. Growing up, her favourite tennis player was
Andre Agassi Andre Kirk Agassi ( ; born April 29, 1970) is an American former professional tennis player. He was ranked as the List of ATP number 1 ranked singles players, world No. 1 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 101 ...
. 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 The Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST; ) is a public university in Wuhan, Hubei, China. It is affiliated with the Ministry of Education of China. The university is part of Project 985, Project 211, and the Double First-Cl ...
(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 ( zh, labels=no, c=姜山), was opposed by the national team's management, some reported that her coach, Yu Liqiao ( zh, labels=no, s=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. She later told ''
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'' that she had felt sick every day and didn't want her life to be only for tennis. Li returned to the national team in 2004 to "give back" for their help during her earlier career. On January 27, 2006, Li married Jiang Shan who then 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" ( zh, labels=no, s=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 twelve percent of her winnings going to the
Chinese Tennis Association The Chinese Tennis Association (CTA; ) is the national governing body of tennis in China. It is a cooperative member of the All-China Sports Federation. The CTA is an independent legal person and it is recognized by China's Olympic Committee. Th ...
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. On 5 June 2016, Li was commissioned by
Special Olympics Special Olympics is the world's largest sports organization for children and adults with intellectual disabilities, providing year-round training and activities to 5 million participants and Unified Sports partners in 172 countries. Special Ol ...
as a Global Ambassador.


1999–2002: Dominance on the ITF Circuit

Li turned professional in 1999, and won three of the first four singles tournaments she entered on the ITF Circuit, two at Shenzhen and one at Westende, Belgium. She also won all of her first seven ITF doubles tournaments she entered. In 2000, she won 52 singles matches on the ITF Circuit, more than any other player, notching another eight tournament titles, including one at the $50k level, two at $25k, and a run of four $10k tournament wins in March and April. Notable individual victories in the course of the year included wins over
Flavia Pennetta Flavia Pennetta (; born 25 February 1982) is an Italian former professional tennis player. She became Italy's first top-ten female singles player on 17 August 2009 and the first Italian to be ranked List of WTA number 1 ranked doubles tennis pla ...
, Emmanuelle Gagliardi,
Maria Elena Camerin Maria Elena Camerin (born 21 March 1982) is a former professional tennis player from Italy. In her career, Camerin won three doubles titles on the WTA Tour, as well as ten singles and nine doubles titles on the ITF Circuit. On 11 October 2004 ...
,
Tamarine Tanasugarn Tamarine Tanasugarn (, , ; born 24 May 1977) is a Thai former tennis player. Born in Los Angeles, she turned professional in 1994, and has been in the top 20 in both singles and doubles. Tanasugarn's career-high WTA ranking is No. 19, achiev ...
and
Yayuk Basuki Yayuk Basuki (born 30 November 1970) is an Indonesian former professional tennis player who is now a politician. She is the highest-ever ranked tennis player from Indonesia, having reached No. 19 in singles in the WTA rankings in October 1997. ...
. In June, after Li's world ranking had risen to No. 136 on the strength of her ITF performances alone, she gained direct entry into her first
WTA Tour The WTA Tour (also known as the Hologic WTA Tour for sponsorship reasons) is a worldwide top-tier tennis tour for women and organized by the Women's Tennis Association. The second-tier tour is the WTA 125 series, and third-tier is the ITF Wome ...
event at Tashkent. Despite winning the first set, Li lost her first WTA singles match to Anna Zaporozhanova in three sets, but she captured the women's doubles title at Tashkent with Li Ting against Zaporozhanova and
Iroda Tulyaganova Iroda Tulyaganova (; born 7 January 1982) is a former professional tennis player from Uzbekistan. Tulyaganova has career-high WTA rankings of 16 in singles (reached in June 2002) and 28 in doubles (September 2002). She won three singles titles ...
. By the end of 2000, Li had won four WTA Tour singles matches, this brought her cumulative ITF singles title count up to eleven. That year, she also won seven more ITF doubles events, six of them with Li Ting. Li was mostly absent from the tour in 2001. She further won two $25k singles tournaments, defeating
Roberta Vinci Roberta Vinci (; born 18 February 1983) is an Italian former tennis player. In doubles tennis, she is a Grand Slam (tennis)#Career Grand Slam, Career Grand Slam champion having won all Grand Slam (tennis)#Tournaments, major tournaments and reac ...
in the final at Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, and Liu Nannan in the final at Guangzhou in July, but then played only one further match for the rest of the year, leading her ranking to fall to No. 303 by the year's close. She won her 15th career ITF doubles tournament at Hangzhou in March. In 2002, she came through qualifying to win her first $75k singles tournament at Midland, United States in February, defeating
Laura Granville Laura Granville (born May 12, 1981) is an American former professional tennis player. During the two years she spent at Stanford University, she set the record for most consecutive singles victories with 58 and finished with an overall record o ...
,
Tatiana Perebiynis Tatiana Yurevna Perebiynis (; born 15 December 1982) is a former professional tennis player from Ukraine. She reached the Wimbledon Championships, Wimbledon junior girls' singles final in 2000, and won the Wimbledon juniors doubles final that ...
, and Mashona Washington en route to the title, the 14th of her career. But she then played only one more match (a loss to
Zuzana Ondrášková Zuzana Ondrášková (born 3 May 1980) is a former professional tennis player from the Czech Republic. Career On 9 February 2004, she reached her highest singles ranking of world No. 74. Her career included wins over several top players, inclu ...
in the $50k event at Dinan, France that April), followed by a lengthy absence from the circuit for the next 25 months. Sources vary as to the causes of this absence, the Chinese media mostly cited the conflict between her and the China's National Tennis Team's administration and coaching staff. Some claimed that she just wanted a break from professional tennis so she could concentrate on her studies at university.


2004–2005: Successful return to professional tennis

In May 2004, Li returned to competition after having not played since 2002. Although she was unranked, she won 26 successive matches to notch three further $25k tournament wins and another $50k title, increasing her career singles title count to 18, only to have her winning streak finally snapped by Evgenia Linetskaya in the semifinal of the $50k Bronx tournament that August. However, she won her 16th ITF doubles tournament at the same event, the 17th overall doubles title of her career. That September, she lost in the final of a $25k tournament to compatriot
Zheng Jie Zheng Jie (born 5 July 1983) is a Chinese former professional tennis player. In May 2009, she achieved a career-high singles ranking of world No. 15. Zheng is one of China's most successful tennis players. She won four singles titles on the ...
, before returning to the WTA Tour, thanks to a wildcard entry into qualifying at
Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...
. There, she defeated Antonella Serra Zanetti,
Marta Domachowska Marta Domachowska (; born 16 January 1986) is a former tennis player from Poland. She was ranked world No. 37 in singles (2006) and No. 62 in doubles (2006), and reached 2008 Australian Open fourth round in singles and won the Canberra Internat ...
, and
Nicole Pratt Nicole Pratt (born 5 March 1973) is a retired tennis player from Australia. Pratt was born in Mackay, Queensland. She is the middle sibling of five children of cane farmers and was taught to play by her father, George, who was a top junior pl ...
before losing in the deciding-set tie-break after a very close second-round main-draw tussle against newly crowned US Open Champion
Svetlana Kuznetsova Svetlana Aleksandrovna Kuznetsova (born 27 June 1985) is a Russian former professional tennis player. She was ranked as high as world No. 2 in singles and world No. 3 in doubles by the Women's Tennis Association, WTA. Kuznetsova won 18 singl ...
, during which she held match points against Kuznetsova. The Russian afterwards praised her Chinese opponent, stating that she had felt as though she was up against a top-five player. The very next week, Li battled her way through qualifying into the WTA Tour event at
Guangzhou Guangzhou, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Canton or Kwangchow, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Guangdong Provinces of China, province in South China, southern China. Located on the Pearl River about nor ...
(a Tier IV event at the time, though since has been upgraded to Tier III), then beat
Vera Dushevina Vera Yevgenyevna Dushevina (; born 6 October 1986) is a Russian former professional tennis player. She won one singles title and two doubles titles on the WTA Tour. As a junior, she won the Wimbledon Championships, beating Maria Sharapova in ...
,
Jelena Janković Jelena Janković ( sr-Cyrl, Јелена Јанковић, ; born 28 February 1985) is a Serbian former professional tennis player. She was ranked as the List of WTA number 1 ranked singles tennis players, world No. 1 in women's singles by the W ...
, Kristina Brandi, and Li Ting in the main draw to reach the final, where she overcame Martina Suchá to win her first WTA Tour title. By doing so, Li became the first Chinese player to win a WTA event. On the back of the ranking points accrued through this result, on 4 October 2004, she broke into the WTA top 100 for the first time. To cap off her most successful year as a singles player yet, she competed in two $50k tournaments at Shenzhen, winning the first outright to bring her the 19th ITF singles title and 20th overall singles title of her career, but losing in the quarterfinals of the second to lower-ranked country-woman Yan Zi. These results elevated Li Na to world No. 80 by the close of the year, a year in which she won 51 singles matches and lost just four. 2005 saw Li finally abandoning the ITF Circuit to focus solely on tour-level events. She began the year with a second-round performance at Gold Coast and a semifinal showing at Hobart, but losing to fellow Chinese player and eventual tournament champion Zheng Jie. She then made her Grand Slam debut at the
2005 Australian Open The 2005 Australian Open was a Grand Slam tennis tournament held in Melbourne, Australia from 17 until 30 January 2005. Roger Federer was unsuccessful in defending his 2004 title, being defeated in the semi-finals by eventual champion Marat Safin ...
, advancing to the third round with wins over Laura Granville and
Shinobu Asagoe is a Japanese former tennis player. She turned professional in 1997, and retired in 2006. Career 2000 was the first year in which she finished in the WTA top 100 (No. 72). At the US Open that year, she defeated Patty Schnyder, a top-50 playe ...
before losing to
Maria Sharapova Maria Yuryevna Sharapova (, ; born 19 April 1987) is a Russian former professional tennis player. She was ranked as the world No. 1 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) for 21 weeks. Sharapova won 36 WTA Tour-level sin ...
. In early February, she reached the quarterfinals at Hyderabad and qualified for Doha where she was narrowly beaten by
Patty Schnyder Patty Schnyder (born 14 December 1978)
Weltwoche, 14. September 2011
is a Swiss reti ...
in the first round of the main draw. After a victory over
Ai Sugiyama is a Japanese former tennis player. She reached the world No. 1 ranking in women's doubles on the WTA Tour and had a career-high singles ranking of world No. 8, achieved on February 9, 2004. In her career, she won six singles and 38 doubles ...
in the first round at Dubai the following week, it was Schnyder once again who stopped her from reaching the later stages of the event. After taking a month off from competition, Li returned at Estoril in late April, defeating Stéphanie Cohen-Aloro,
Nicole Pratt Nicole Pratt (born 5 March 1973) is a retired tennis player from Australia. Pratt was born in Mackay, Queensland. She is the middle sibling of five children of cane farmers and was taught to play by her father, George, who was a top junior pl ...
, Dally Randriantefy, and then crushing
Dinara Safina Dinara Mubinovna Safina (, ; ; born April 27, 1986) is a Russian former professional tennis player. She was ranked as the world No. 1 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) for 26 weeks, and world No. 8 in doubles. Safina ...
to reach her second WTA Tour final. Li was denied the title by Czech qualifier
Lucie Šafářová Lucie Šafářová (; born 4 February 1987) is a Czech professional tennis player who was ranked List of WTA number 1 ranked doubles tennis players, world No. 1 in doubles, and No. 5 in singles. She is a five-time Grand Slam champion in doubles ...
, who prevailed in a close three-set match. At Rabat in May, Li reached the semifinal stage, but further success ultimately proved elusive for her. With the score leveled at 3–3, she retired due to a right ankle sprain while clashing with Zheng Jie. Reaching this semifinal propelled her to a career-high singles ranking of world No. 33, but the injury she had sustained was destined to keep her out of action for the next three months. On her return at Los Angeles in August, she fell in the first round to
Anna Chakvetadze Anna Djambuliovna Chakvetadze ( ; born 5 March 1987) is a Russian former professional tennis player. In her career, Chakvetadze won eight WTA Tour singles titles. She reached her highest singles ranking of world No. 5 in September 2007, after r ...
of Russia. The following week, however, at the Canadian Open, she once more beat Jelena Janković and
María Vento-Kabchi María Alejandra Vento-Kabchi (born 24 May 1974) is a Venezuelan former professional tennis player. In July 2004, she reached her career-high singles ranking of world No. 26. She won four WTA Tour titles in doubles. Vento-Kabchi reached the four ...
, before losing to
Nadia Petrova Nadezhda Viktorovna "Nadia" Petrova ( ; born 8 June 1982) is a Russian former professional tennis player. A former top-five player in both singles and doubles, she reached a career-high ranking of No. 3 in the world in both disciplines (doing s ...
in the third round. It was
Lindsay Davenport Lindsay Ann Davenport Leach (born June 8, 1976) is an American former professional tennis player. She was ranked as the world No. 1 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) for 98 weeks (including as the year-end No. 1 four ...
who proved her undoing in her next two tournaments, beating her in the first round of the US Open, and at the semifinal stage in Bali in September, but not before Li Na had avenged her previous year's defeat by Yan Zi in the second round of the same tournament. The following week, another highly ranked American player,
Jill Craybas Jill N. Craybas (born July 4, 1974) is an American former professional tennis player. From the 2000 US Open to the 2011 US Open, Craybas competed in 45 consecutive Grand Slam tournament main draws; her best result coming in the 2005 Wimbledon C ...
, narrowly defeated Li Na in a close three-set first-round match at Beijing. Li commenced her defense of her Guangzhou title; but she was prevented from completing it in the quarterfinals by eventual champion Yan Zi, who thereby edged out in front in their head-to-head record once again. This second loss in three head-to-heads against Yan proved to be Li's last match of 2005; and in her absence from the Shenzhen $50k tournaments where she had notched up some ranking points late the previous year, she found herself slipping further in the rankings from the high point of No. 33 that she had reached in the spring before her injury break, to No. 56 at the year's close.


2006: First Chinese major quarterfinalist

With nearly all her remaining ranking points to defend concentrated in a little over the first four months of the year, Li began the year faced with the challenge of equaling her strong results from the early part of 2005 in order to maintain her position in the middle reaches of the WTA top 100. Early-round draws against high-ranked players towards the beginning of 2006 took a heavy toll on Li's singles ranking, bringing it slipping down to No. 71 by the end of February. She returned with a career-best performance at Tier I events by reaching the semifinal at Berlin. On the way there, she achieved her first victory over a current top-10-ranked player as she ousted Patty Schnyder for the first time at the quarterfinal stage. However, this match left her with a muscle sprain, and she lost to Nadia Petrova in the semifinal. Nonetheless, her performance at this high-level tournament saw her ranked No. 39. Joining the WTA Tour grass-court season for the first time at the Birmingham Classic in June, she managed another third-round finish with wins over Mashona Washington and grass-court specialist
Eleni Daniilidou Eleni Daniilidou (; ; born 19 September 1982) is a Greek former tennis player from the island of Crete. She is considered one of the best Greek tennis players of the Open Era, winning five singles titles and three doubles titles on the WTA Tou ...
, both in straight sets, then lost for the third time in three meetings to Maria Sharapova. Her ranking following this tournament was No. 30, which was at that time the highest ever ranking achieved by a Chinese woman. At the same event, partnering Jelena Janković, she notched up her second career WTA doubles title, almost exactly six years from her first at Tashkent. An early retirement against
Alona Bondarenko Alona Volodymyrivna Bondarenko Dyachok (; born 13 August 1984) is a Ukrainian former tennis player. Her sisters Valeria and Kateryna Bondarenko are also tennis players. Her career-high singles ranking is No. 19, achieved on 14 April 2008. Alo ...
in the first round of the Ondina Open at 's-Hertogenbosch the following week curtailed her final competitive preparations for her debut appearance at
Wimbledon Wimbledon most often refers to: * Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London * Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships Wimbledon may also refer to: Places London * W ...
. But with an entry ranking of 30th, she found herself seeded 27th after some withdrawals, and thus achieved another first for her country in becoming the first Chinese woman ever to be seeded for entry into a Grand Slam tournament. At
Wimbledon Wimbledon most often refers to: * Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London * Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships Wimbledon may also refer to: Places London * W ...
, she reached the fourth round with comfortable straight-sets wins over respected grass-court players
Virginie Razzano Virginie Razzano (born 12 May 1983) is a French former professional tennis player. She won two WTA Tour singles titles, both in 2007. Razzano reached her career-high WTA singles ranking of No. 16 on 14 September 2009. She represented France in ...
and recent Birmingham semifinalist
Meilen Tu Meilen Tu (traditional Chinese: 涂美倫, simplified Chinese: 涂美伦, Hanyu Pinyin: ''Tú Měilún'') (born January 17, 1978) is a former professional tennis player from the U.S. In her career, she won one singles title and four doubles title ...
, followed by victory against 10th seeded
Svetlana Kuznetsova Svetlana Aleksandrovna Kuznetsova (born 27 June 1985) is a Russian former professional tennis player. She was ranked as high as world No. 2 in singles and world No. 3 in doubles by the Women's Tennis Association, WTA. Kuznetsova won 18 singl ...
, resulting in her being the first Chinese player ever to reach any Grand Slam quarterfinal. Li rose to a new career-high WTA ranking of No. 20 following the tournament, even though she ultimately lost her quarterfinal match against Kim Clijsters in two close sets. She reached the quarterfinals at Stockholm, and the fourth round at the US Open, where, as the 24th seed, she was beaten by eventual champion Maria Sharapova in two sets. She then reached the quarterfinals at the China Open, where she was beaten by Svetlana Kuznetsova, and in Guangzhou.


2007–2009

Li started the year by participating at Tier III event in Gold Coast, Australia, where she reached the second round. The next week, she competed in Sydney. She defeated
Francesca Schiavone Francesca Schiavone (; born 23 June 1980) is an Italian former professional tennis player. She had career-high rankings of world No. 4 in women's singles and No. 8 in women's doubles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA). Schiavone won eight W ...
in the first round,
Elena Dementieva Elena Viacheslavovna Dementieva (, ; born 15 October 1981) is a Russian former professional tennis player. She was WTA rankings, ranked world No. 3 in women's singles and world No. 5 in women's doubles by the Women's Tennis Association, WTA. Dem ...
in the second, saving five match points, and
Katarina Srebotnik Katarina Srebotnik (born 12 March 1981) is a Slovenian former professional tennis player. She reached a career-high singles ranking of world No. 20, on 7 August 2006. On 4 July 2011, she became the No. 1 of the WTA doubles rankings, holding thi ...
in the quarterfinal. Then, she made it to the semifinals, losing a tough match to Kim Clijsters, 5–7 in the third set. However, she rose to a career high of No. 16 afterwards. Li Na followed her strong showing at Sydney with an equally strong showing at the
Australian Open The Australian Open (stylized ΛO) is a tennis tournament organised by Tennis Australia annually at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Victoria (state), Victoria, Australia. It is chronologically the first of the four Grand Slam (tennis), Grand Sl ...
, where she advanced to the fourth round. Seeded 19th, Li dispatched
Elena Bovina Elena Olegovna Bovina ( rus, Елена Олеговна Бовина, , ɪ̯ɪˈlʲenə ˈbovʲɪnə, links=no; born 10 March 1983) is a former professional tennis player from Russia. She reached a career-high singles ranking of world No. 14 i ...
and
Lourdes Domínguez Lino Lourdes Domínguez Lino (; born 31 March 1981) is a former tennis player from Spain. She reached career-high rankings of world No. 40 in singles and 45 in doubles. Biography Tennis career In the 1999 Roland Garros, she won the junior girls' s ...
in straight sets through the first two rounds, leading to a matchup with No. 9 Dinara Safina. The match was postponed due to rain, but Li handily beat Safina to advance to the fourth round to play Swiss star, No. 6
Martina Hingis Martina Hingis (, ; born 30 September 1980) is a Swiss former professional tennis player. She was ranked as the world No. 1 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) for 209 weeks ( fifth-most of all time) and as the world No. ...
. Due to a rain delay and the fact that Hingis played on
Rod Laver Arena Rod Laver Arena is a multipurpose arena located within Melbourne Park, in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia. The arena is the main venue for the Australian Open, the first Grand Slam (tennis), Grand Slam tennis tournament of ...
, a roofed court, on the originally scheduled day, Hingis had an extra day of rest. The match the previous day seemed to have no effect, as Li took the first set from Hingis. However, Na faded as the match went on and lost while committing 69 unforced errors. Despite the loss, the tournament was a success for Li, as it marked the third straight time in a Grand Slam that she advanced at least to the fourth round. At the Tier I
Pan Pacific Open The Pan Pacific Open, currently sponsored by Toray Industries, is a women's outdoor hardcourt tennis tournament held annually in Tokyo, Japan. It is a WTA 500-level tournament. History The tournament was first held in 1973 as the Toray Sillook Ch ...
in Tokyo, Li advanced to the second round, defeating
Lilia Osterloh Lilia Osterloh (born April 7, 1978) is a former tennis player from the United States. Osterloh became professional in August 1997. She reached her highest singles ranking in April 2001, when she became world No. 41. Her career-high doubles rank ...
before losing to
Samantha Stosur Samantha Jane Stosur (born 30 March 1984) is an Australian former professional tennis player. She is a former List of WTA number 1 ranked doubles tennis players, world No. 1 in doubles, a ranking which she first achieved on 6 February 2006 and ...
in two sets, converting zero of eleven break points. At the important Indian Wells Open in California, Li made a strong showing, advancing to the semifinals. She lost to
Daniela Hantuchová Daniela Hantuchová (; born 23 April 1983) is a Slovak tennis commentator and retired player. She turned professional in 1999 and had her breakthrough year in 2002, when she won her first WTA Tour title at the Indian Wells Open, defeating Martin ...
in the semifinal. She continued her good form at the Miami Open, losing just three games in her first two matches against
Tamira Paszek Tamira Shelah Paszek (born 6 December 1990) is an Austrian tennis player. On 11 February 2013, she reached her career-high singles ranking of world No. 26. On 6 May 2013, she peaked at No. 93 in the doubles rankings. Paszek has won three single ...
and Katarina Srebotnik, before stunning fourth-seeded Kim Clijsters in three sets. She then lost in the quarterfinals to
Anna Chakvetadze Anna Djambuliovna Chakvetadze ( ; born 5 March 1987) is a Russian former professional tennis player. In her career, Chakvetadze won eight WTA Tour singles titles. She reached her highest singles ranking of world No. 5 in September 2007, after r ...
. She then moved onto the green clay of
Amelia Island Amelia Island is a part of the Sea Islands chain that stretches along the East Coast of the United States from South Carolina to Florida; it is the southernmost of the Sea Islands, and the northernmost of the barrier islands on Florida's Atlant ...
, where she suffered a shock second-round exit, after receiving a first round bye, to former top-20 player
Karolina Šprem Karolina Šprem Baghdatis (born 25 October 1984) is a former professional tennis player from Croatia. She won eleven titles (ten singles), all at the ITF level. Her highest ranking is world No. 17, achieved in October 2004. Personal life Karol ...
in straight sets. At the
Family Circle Cup The Charleston Open, currently sponsored by Credit One, is a WTA Tour-affiliated professional tennis tournament for women, held every year since 1973. It is the oldest professional all-women's tournament in America with a $1,064,510 purse. The t ...
held in Charleston, South Carolina, she fell in the third round to
Anabel Medina Garrigues Ana Isabel Medina Garrigues (, ; born 31 July 1982) is a Spanish tennis coach and former professional player. As a player she reached a career-high ranking of world No. 16 in 2009, and won 11 singles and 28 doubles titles, including the 2008 ...
. After losing in a grass tune-up event in Birmingham, Li pulled out of every tournament she was to play in the summer, including Wimbledon and the US Open, citing a rib injury. Li had not played a professional match in half a year and had resultantly slipped to No. 29 in the WTA rankings when she returned from her rib injury in January 2008 to compete at the Australian Women's Hardcourts in Gold Coast. In the first round, she narrowly defeated seventh seed
Sybille Bammer Sybille Bammer (born 27 April 1980) is a former professional tennis player from Austria. Her career-high ranking is No. 19, which she achieved on 17 December 2007. She was one of three mothers on the WTA Tour, having taken time off at age 21 to ...
. After a comfortable second round victory over wildcard
Monique Adamczak Monique Adamczak (born 21 January 1983) is an inactive Australian tennis player. Her favourite surface is grass. She has specialised in doubles and has been coached by Tony Roche, former coach of Roger Federer. Adamczak made her debut as a p ...
, she was drawn to meet the top seed
Nicole Vaidišová Nicole Vaidišová Štěpánková (; born 23 April 1989) is a Czech former professional tennis player. Vaidišová is an Australian Open and French Open semifinalist as well as a two-time quarterfinalist at Wimbledon. She started playing te ...
in the quarterfinals. Li won their encounter in straight sets, advancing to the semifinals, where she edged past Patty Schnyder. In the final, she narrowly prevailed against
Victoria Azarenka Victoria Fiodaraŭna Azarenka (born 31 July 1989) is a Belarusian professional tennis player. She has been ranked as the world No. 1 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA), having held the position for a total of 51 weeks ...
, not only ending her three-year title drought (since Guangzhou 2004) but scoring her second career singles title. Despite rising back up to world No. 24 following this victory, she then withdrew from the 2008 Sydney International, after suffering a right knee injury. Her failure to defend her previous year's semifinal performance at this event cost her 125 ranking points, which dipped her ranking back down to No. 30 for the week beginning 14 January. Going into the 2008 Australian Open, she had a further 140 ranking points to defend from her fourth-round performance in 2007. Faced with a relatively lenient draw in the early rounds, she survived a close three-set tussle with Séverine Brémond in the first round, before surpassing
Maria Elena Camerin Maria Elena Camerin (born 21 March 1982) is a former professional tennis player from Italy. In her career, Camerin won three doubles titles on the WTA Tour, as well as ten singles and nine doubles titles on the ITF Circuit. On 11 October 2004 ...
in straight sets in round two. A revitalised
Marta Domachowska Marta Domachowska (; born 16 January 1986) is a former tennis player from Poland. She was ranked world No. 37 in singles (2006) and No. 62 in doubles (2006), and reached 2008 Australian Open fourth round in singles and won the Canberra Internat ...
remained between her and the defence of her ranking points, and although Li won the first set convincingly, she faltered thereafter and finally ceded the match to her Polish opponent by a single break of serve in the closely fought deciding set. Having slipped three places to world No. 33 by the time she entered the Tier II tournament at Antwerp in early February, she nonetheless progressed to the semifinals with back-to-back-to-back straight-sets wins over Russian veteran
Elena Likhovtseva Elena Alexandrovna Likhovtseva ( ; born 8 September 1975) is a Kazakhstani-born Russian former tennis player. She turned professional in January 1992, at the age of 16. Together with Mahesh Bhupathi she won the Wimbledon Mixed doubles in 20 ...
, Slovak world No. 45
Dominika Cibulková Dominika Cibulková (; born 6 May 1989) is a Slovak former professional tennis player. She is the 2016 WTA Finals champion, becoming the fourth player (after Serena Williams in 2001 WTA Tour Championships, 2001, Maria Sharapova in 2004 WTA Tour ...
, and on-form Swedish world No. 66
Sofia Arvidsson Lena Sofia Alexandra Arvidsson (born 16 February 1984) is a Swedish professional padel player and a former tennis player. In her tennis career, she won two singles titles and one doubles title on the WTA Tour, as well as 20 singles and 13 doubl ...
. However, she withered in the semifinals against world No. 47,
Karin Knapp Karin Knapp (born 28 June 1987) is a retired Italian tennis player. In her career, Knapp won two singles titles on the WTA Tour, along with six singles and six doubles titles on the ITF Circuit. On 24 August 2015, she reached her best singles ...
, despite having taken an early lead with a break of service in the first set, ultimately ceding the match to her Italian opponent in two sets. This tournament brought her back up within the top 30 at world No. 29. The next week at the Tier I Qatar Open, Li met Likhovtseva again in the first round. This time, after taking the first set comfortably, she was challenged to a much tougher battle, but eventually won in three sets. In round two, she scored her second straight-sets victory in four career head-to-heads against Russian world No. 6 Anna Chakvetadze, saving a set point in the first set tie-break, before recovering to win. In the third round, she enjoyed a more comfortable victory over Israeli world No. 17,
Shahar Pe'er Shahar Pe'er (, ; born ) is an Israeli retired tennis player. Pe'er won five singles and three doubles titles on the WTA Tour, as well as four singles and three doubles titles on the International Tennis Federation, ITF circuit in her career ...
, recovering from a 1–3 deficit in the second set. In the quarterfinals, she met her old rival and friend, world No. 4 Jelena Janković, coming into the match with a winning 3–1 head-to-head record to her credit against the Serbian player. By defeating Janković she extended this record to 4–1 and moved into the semifinals, where she played Vera Zvonareva, against whom she had won both of her previous encounters. Despite taking the first set, Li lost the second by the same scoreline; and although she was 3–2 up in the final set, she then ceded four successive games to her opponent to lose the match. Her ranking having risen back to No. 23 on the strength of this performance, she was prevented from consolidating on this recovery by suffering a right knee injury, which forced her to pull out of her scheduled entries into both the Tier II event at Bangalore in early March and the Tier I tournament at Indian Wells in the middle of the month. She returned to action at the
International Women's Open The Eastbourne Open (also known as Eastbourne International, formerly Rothesay) is a tennis tournament on the WTA Tour and the ATP Tour held at the Devonshire Park Lawn Tennis Club, Eastbourne, United Kingdom. Held since 1974, it is classified ...
in Eastbourne, winning one round before losing to Nadia Petrova. She then contested Wimbledon, defeating
Anastasia Rodionova Anastasia Ivanovna Rodionova (; born 12 May 1982) is a Russian-born Australian former professional tennis player. Rodionova has won 11 doubles titles on the WTA Tour, as well as eight singles and 13 doubles titles on the ITF Circuit. On 16 Au ...
before losing to
Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova Anastasia Sergeyevna "Nastia" Pavlyuchenkova (; born 3 July 1991) is a Russian professional tennis player. She reached a career-high singles WTA rankings, ranking of world No. 11 on 8 November 2021. Pavlyuchenkova has won twelve singles titles ...
. At the Beijing Olympics, following early-round victories against world No. 3 Svetlana Kuznetsova,
Ayumi Morita is a Japanese former professional tennis player. She reached a career-high ranking of 40 in the world in October 2011. At junior level, she reached a combined career-high ranking of 3. Morita is known for strong and consistent two-handed gro ...
, and
Kaia Kanepi Kaia Kanepi (; born 10 June 1985) is an Estonian inactive professional tennis player. She achieved her career-high ranking of world No. 15 on 20 August 2012 and has won four singles titles on the WTA Tour. Described as a 'resident Grand Slam up ...
, she went on to defeat one of the favourites, Venus Williams, in the quarterfinals. Li was trailing 1–4 in the first set, but managed to strengthen her game to win in straight sets. Li lost her semifinal match to sixth seed Dinara Safina and was then defeated in the bronze final by Vera Zvonareva. At the following US Open, Li was defeated by the Beijing Olympics gold medalist Elena Dementieva in the fourth round. In the 2008 Stuttgart Grand Prix, the unseeded Li defeated top ranked Serena Williams in the second round in three sets. Li thus became only the second Chinese player to defeat a world No. 1 player, following Zheng Jie's victory over
Ana Ivanovic Ana Schweinsteiger (name at birth, née Ivanovic; born 6 November 1987) is a Serbian former professional tennis player. She was ranked as the List of WTA number 1 ranked singles tennis players, world No. 1 in women's singles by the Women's Tenn ...
at
Wimbledon Wimbledon most often refers to: * Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London * Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships Wimbledon may also refer to: Places London * W ...
in 2008. Li withdrew from both the inaugural
Brisbane International The Brisbane International established in 2009 is a professional tennis tournament played on Tennis court#Hard courts, outdoor hardcourts in Brisbane, Queensland in Australia. It is a WTA 500 tournaments, WTA 500 tournament and an ATP World T ...
, where she was defending champion (as she won the title at Gold Coast in 2008), and the
2009 Australian Open The 2009 Australian Open was a tennis tournament played on outdoor hard courts. It was the 97th edition of the Australian Open, and the first Grand Slam (tennis), Grand Slam event of the year. It took place at the Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Aus ...
because of a right-knee injury. She made her comeback at the Paris Indoors. In the first round, she beat
Ágnes Szávay Ágnes Szávay (, ; born 29 December 1988) is a former professional tennis player from Hungary. The 2007 WTA Newcomer of the Year achieved her career-high ranking of world No. 13 in April 2008. Personal life Szávay was born in Kiskunhalas an ...
, but in the second round she lost to second-seeded Jelena Janković. In the first round of the Dubai Championships, Li lost to
Elena Vesnina Elena Sergeyevna Vesnina (born 1 August 1986) is a Russian former professional tennis player who was List of WTA number 1 ranked doubles tennis players, world No. 1 in doubles. Vesnina is a four-time Grand Slam (tennis), Grand Slam champion, h ...
in three sets. Unseeded at the
Monterrey Open The Monterrey Open, known as the Abierto GNP Seguros for sponsorship reasons, is a professional women's tennis tournament played on outdoor hardcourts in Monterrey, Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in Nort ...
, she defeated world No. 10 and top seed
Agnieszka Radwańska Agnieszka Roma Radwańska (; born 6 March 1989) is a Polish former professional tennis player and current coach. She was ranked world No. 2 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA), in July 2012. Radwańska won 20 WTA Tour sing ...
in a first round match that lasted over two hours. In the second round, she beat
Petra Cetkovská Petra Cetkovská (; born 8 February 1985) is a retired Czech tennis player. Having turned professional in 2000, she reached a career-high singles ranking of world No. 25, on 18 June 2012. Over her career, Cetkovská defeated top-ten players Mari ...
and then advanced to the semifinals after defeating Lucie Šafářová. Li then moved into her fifth career tour final, after beating sixth-seeded
Iveta Benešová Iveta Benešová () (formerly Melzer, ; born 1 February 1983) is a Czech former tennis player. She began playing tennis aged seven and turned professional in 1998. She won two WTA Tour singles and 14 doubles tournaments, and one Grand Slam tit ...
. However, Li lost to second-seeded
Marion Bartoli Marion Bartoli (; born 2 October 1984) is a French former professional tennis player. Bartoli won the 2013 Wimbledon Championships – Women's singles, 2013 Wimbledon Championships singles title, after previously being runner-up in 2007 Wimbledo ...
in the final in straight sets. She played in the Premier event at Indian Wells, where she defeated Tamarine Tanasugarn, Patty Schnyder, and[Amélie Mauresmo, all in straight sets, to advance to the fourth round, where she lost to eventual champion Vera Zvonareva. She then reached the quarterfinals of the Premier event in Miami, where she beat qualifier Urszula Radwańska in the first round and upset 29th seed
Aleksandra Wozniak Aleksandra Wozniak (; born September 7, 1987) is a Canadian former tennis player. She turned professional in November 2005, and achieved a career-best ranking of No. 21 in June 2009, making her the fifth highest-ranked Canadian singles player of ...
to reach the third round, where she caused a big upset by defeating the previous week's Indian Wells champion, sixth-seeded Vera Zvonareva in three sets. This victory was particularly important for Li, as she had been beaten by Zvonareva the week before at Indian Wells. She then faced unseeded Russian
Ekaterina Makarova Ekaterina Valeryevna Makarova (; ; born 7 June 1988) is a Russian former professional tennis player who was ranked List of WTA number 1 ranked doubles tennis players, world No. 1 in doubles, and world No. 8 in singles. She is a four-time Gra ...
in the fourth round and beat her in three sets to set up a quarterfinal match with the top seed and world No. 1, Serena Williams, a match which she lost in a tight three-setter. Because of her strong performance, her ranking went up to world No. 29 from world No. 40. Li's next event was the second Grand Slam of the year, the French Open in Paris. As the 25th seed, she won her first round against
Marta Domachowska Marta Domachowska (; born 16 January 1986) is a former tennis player from Poland. She was ranked world No. 37 in singles (2006) and No. 62 in doubles (2006), and reached 2008 Australian Open fourth round in singles and won the Canberra Internat ...
. She then defeated
Timea Bacsinszky Timea Bacsinszky (; born 8 June 1989) is a Swiss former professional tennis player. A former top ten singles player, Bacsinszky reached a career-high singles ranking of world No. 9, on 16 May 2016. She won four singles and five doubles titles o ...
and
Olga Govortsova Olga Alekseyevna Govortsova ( (Volha Alyakseyeuna Havartsova); ; born 23 August 1988) is a Belarusian professional tennis player. On 23 June 2008, she achieved a career-high singles ranking of world No. 35. On 29 August 2011, she peaked at No. 2 ...
. She then lost to unseeded former world No. 1, Maria Sharapova, in the fourth round. After this impressive result, she jumped up to No. 20. She started her grass-court season as the fourth seed at the Birmingham Classic and advanced to the final with a win over Maria Sharapova in the semifinals. However, Na was defeated by
Magdaléna Rybáriková Magdaléna Rybáriková (; born 4 October 1988) is a Slovak former professional tennis player. In her career, she won four singles titles and one doubles title on the WTA Tour. Rybáriková reached the semifinals of the 2017 Wimbledon Champion ...
in the final. Li was seeded 19th at the
2009 Wimbledon Championships The 2009 Wimbledon Championships was a tennis tournament played on grass courts at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon, London in the United Kingdom. It was the 123rd edition of the Wimbledon Championships and was held from ...
. She defeated
Galina Voskoboeva Galina Olegovna Voskoboeva (; born 18 December 1984) is a Russian-born Kazakhstani former tennis player. She reached career-high rankings of world No. 42 in singles and No. 26 in doubles. Career Born in Moscow, Voskoboeva turned pro in 2002. Du ...
in the first round and Olga Govortsova in the second round, but lost to No. 11 Agnieszka Radwańska in the third round. At the 2009 Bank of the West Classic, she lost to Serena Williams in the first round, and at the LA Women's Championships, she withdrew due to injury during her match with Urszula Radwańska of Poland. Seeded 18th at the US Open, she reached her first US Open quarterfinals, where she lost to eventual champion Kim Clijsters. En route to the quarterfinals, she defeated
Raluca Olaru Ioana Raluca Olaru (born 3 March 1989) is a Romanian former professional tennis player. The winner of eleven singles and fifteen doubles titles on the ITF Women's Circuit, Olaru reached one WTA Tour singles final, at the 2009 Gastein Ladies,WTA ...
,
Michelle Larcher de Brito Micaela Carolina Larcher de Brito (born 29 January 1993), known by the anglicized name Michelle Larcher de Brito, is a Portuguese former professional tennis player. She is the former Portuguese No. 1. Larcher de Brito won four singles titles on ...
,
Maria Kirilenko Maria Yuryevna Kirilenko ( rus, Мари́я Ю́рьевна Кириле́нко, p=mɐˈrʲijə kʲɪrʲɪˈlʲenkə, a=Ru-Maria_Kirilenko.ogg; born 25 January 1987) is a Russian former professional tennis player. A junior Grand Slam champio ...
, and Francesca Schiavone all in straight sets. Seeded 15th at the
Pan Pacific Open The Pan Pacific Open, currently sponsored by Toray Industries, is a women's outdoor hardcourt tennis tournament held annually in Tokyo, Japan. It is a WTA 500-level tournament. History The tournament was first held in 1973 as the Toray Sillook Ch ...
, Li won her opening match against Alizé Cornet. She then defeated
Vera Dushevina Vera Yevgenyevna Dushevina (; born 6 October 1986) is a Russian former professional tennis player. She won one singles title and two doubles titles on the WTA Tour. As a junior, she won the Wimbledon Championships, beating Maria Sharapova in ...
before beating
Kateryna Bondarenko Kateryna Volodymyrivna Volodko (née Bondarenko; ; born 8 August 1986) is a tennis player from Ukraine. Her career-high rankings are world No. 29 in singles and No. 9 in doubles. She was the doubles champion at the 2008 Australian Open, partneri ...
. In the quarterfinal, she defeated Victoria Azarenka in three sets, two of which were tiebreaks, though she failed in serving for the match twice in the last set. Li lost in the semifinals to Jelena Janković and finished the year at world No. 15, her then-career-high year-end ranking.


2010: First major semifinal & ascent to top 10

Li's first tournament of 2010 was the Classic in Auckland, where she was seeded second. She was defeated by Kaia Kanepi in the first round. In Sydney, she defeated fourth seed Caroline Wozniacki but lost to Flavia Pennetta in the second round. Li was seeded 16th at the
Australian Open The Australian Open (stylized ΛO) is a tennis tournament organised by Tennis Australia annually at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Victoria (state), Victoria, Australia. It is chronologically the first of the four Grand Slam (tennis), Grand Sl ...
. She defeated world No. 4 Caroline Wozniacki in the fourth round and then came from a set and 3–5 down to defeat world No. 6 Venus Williams, in her first Australian Open quarterfinal and only her third
major Major most commonly refers to: * Major (rank), a military rank * Academic major, an academic discipline to which an undergraduate student formally commits * People named Major, including given names, surnames, nicknames * Major and minor in musi ...
quarterfinal. In the semifinals, she lost to Serena Williams in two highly competitive tiebreaks. As a result of this performance, Li was the first Chinese woman ever to be ranked in the top ten of women's professional tennis. At the Dubai Championships, Li, the eighth seed, defeated
María José Martínez Sánchez María José Martínez Sánchez (; born 12 August 1982) is a Spanish former professional tennis player. In singles, she won five WTA Tour titles, her biggest being a Premier 5 title at the 2010 Italian Open where she defeated two former world ...
in the second round. She then came from a 6–3, 5–2 deficit to defeat Marion Bartoli in the third round. Li was forced to retire in her quarterfinals match against Shahar Pe'er. Li continued her season at the inaugural Malaysian Open. As second seed, she fell to
Tatjana Malek Tatjana Maria (née Malek; born 8 August 1987) is a German professional tennis player. In January 2024 she reached her career-best singles ranking of world No. 42, and in June 2016, she peaked at No. 54 in the doubles rankings. She has won four ...
in the first round. As seventh seed at the
Indian Wells Open The BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells is an annual professional tennis tournament held in Indian Wells, California, United States. It is played on outdoor hardcourts at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden, and is held in March. The tournament is pa ...
, Li fell to
Elena Baltacha Elena Sergeevna Baltacha (; 14 August 1983 – 4 May 2014) was a Ukrainian-born British professional tennis player. Being a four-time winner of the AEGON Awards, she was also a long-term British No. 1, a position she held intermittently ...
in round two. Li was eighth seed at the Miami Open, but fell to Timea Bacsinszky in the second round. At the Stuttgart Grand Prix, Li defeated defending champion Svetlana Kuznetsova in the second round, before falling to eventual runner-up Sam Stosur in the quarterfinals. Li was 11th seed at the
French Open The French Open (), also known as Roland-Garros (), is a tennis tournament organized by the French Tennis Federation annually at Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France. It is chronologically the second of the four Grand Slam (tennis), Grand Slam ...
. She fell to eventual champion and world No. 17 Francesca Schiavone in the third round. Li was seeded first at the Birmingham Classic. She defeated 4th seed
Aravane Rezaï Aravane Rezaï (; ''Arghavān-e Rezāyi'' , born 14 March 1987) is an Iranian–French professional tennis player. She has defeated many top players on the WTA Tour, such as Justine Henin, Venus Williams, Victoria Azarenka, Maria Sharap ...
in the semifinals, and second-seeded Maria Sharapova in the final to win the tournament. With the win, Li returned to the top 10 in the WTA rankings. Seeded seventh at
Eastbourne Eastbourne () is a town and seaside resort in East Sussex, on the south coast of England, east of Brighton and south of London. It is also a non-metropolitan district, local government district with Borough status in the United Kingdom, bor ...
, Li retired in the first round with a knee injury after winning the first set against Elena Baltacha. Li was seeded ninth at
Wimbledon Wimbledon most often refers to: * Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London * Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships Wimbledon may also refer to: Places London * W ...
. She defeated seventh seed Agnieszka Radwańska to advance to the quarterfinals at Wimbledon for the second time in her career, where she lost to world No. 1 and defending champion Serena Williams. In doing so Li once again returned to the top 10 in the WTA rankings. At the US Open, she started off as the eighth seed, but fell at the first hurdle to Kateryna Bondarenko. Li was an alternate at the WTA Championships, but did not receive a chance to play. Instead, she played at the Tournament of Champions as the first seed. However, she was defeated by Japanese
Kimiko Date-Krumm is a Japanese former professional tennis player. She reached the semifinals of the 1994 Australian Open, the 1995 French Open and the 1996 Wimbledon Championships, and won the Japan Open a record four times. She reached a career-high ranking ...
in the first round, putting an end to her 2010 season, her best season to date. She finished just outside the top 10 at world No. 11. At the end of the year, Li's coach
Thomas Högstedt Thomas Högstedt (born 21 September 1963) is a Swedish tennis coach and former professional player. He is the former coach of Tommy Haas, Magnus Norman, Eugenie Bouchard, Caroline Wozniacki, Maria Sharapova, Li Na, Simona Halep, Madison Keys an ...
chose to leave her in order to coach Maria Sharapova.


2011: Major breakthrough & historic victory at French Open

Li played in the
Sydney International The Sydney International (formerly known as the Championship of New South Wales and New South Wales Open, with various title sponsors), formerly sponsored as the Apia International Sydney from 2012 to 2017, was a professional tennis tournament ...
as the eighth seed, making fast work of Australian wildcard
Anastasia Rodionova Anastasia Ivanovna Rodionova (; born 12 May 1982) is a Russian-born Australian former professional tennis player. Rodionova has won 11 doubles titles on the WTA Tour, as well as eight singles and 13 doubles titles on the ITF Circuit. On 16 Au ...
and winning a tough three-set match against
Virginie Razzano Virginie Razzano (born 12 May 1983) is a French former professional tennis player. She won two WTA Tour singles titles, both in 2007. Razzano reached her career-high WTA singles ranking of No. 16 on 14 September 2009. She represented France in ...
in the first two rounds. In the quarterfinals she met two-time Grand Slam winner Svetlana Kuznetsova and came through with a win. She defeated surprise qualifier
Bojana Jovanovski Bojana may refer to: Places * Bojana (river), a river in Albania and Montenegro (known as ''Buna'' in Albanian) * Ada Bojana / Bojana Island, an island in Montenegro * Bojana, Croatia, a village near Čazma Name * Bojana (given name), a Slavic ...
in the semifinals to advance to her eighth WTA final. Li faced world No. 3 Kim Clijsters in the final, and despite trailing 5–0 in the first set, Li went on to defeat Clijsters, capturing the fourth WTA title of her career. Li was the ninth seed at the
Australian Open The Australian Open (stylized ΛO) is a tennis tournament organised by Tennis Australia annually at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Victoria (state), Victoria, Australia. It is chronologically the first of the four Grand Slam (tennis), Grand Sl ...
, where she reached her first Grand Slam singles final, the first tennis player representing an East Asian and Asian country to achieve that feat. On the way she ousted eighth seed Victoria Azarenka in straight sets. She defeated world No. 1, Caroline Wozniacki, in the semifinals to reach the final, after saving a match point in the second set. She faced No. 3 seed Kim Clijsters (whom she had defeated at the Sydney International). Although Li claimed the first set, Clijsters was able to rally back and claim the championship. Despite the loss, Li's ranking rose to a career high of world No. 7. Despite a good early start to the season, Li then had a five-match losing streak. After receiving byes into the second rounds, she lost in a hardly fought match against
Yanina Wickmayer Yanina Wickmayer (born 20 October 1989) is a Belgian professional tennis player. She reached the semifinals at the 2009 US Open – Women's singles, 2009 US Open, and a career-high WTA ranking of No. 12, on 19 April 2010. In doubles, she achieve ...
at the Dubai Championships, lucky loser
Klára Zakopalová Klara may refer to: * Klara, a female given name, see Clara (given name) * Klara (radio), a classical-music radio station in Belgium * Klara (singer), birth name Klára Vytisková (born 1985), Czech singer * Klara (Stockholm), an area of centra ...
at the
Qatar Ladies Open The Qatar Open, currently sponsored by TotalEnergies and called the Qatar TotalEnergies Open, is a professional tennis WTA 1000 tournament held in Doha, Qatar. Held since 2001, this WTA Tour event was a Tier I-tournament in 2008, and was played o ...
and countrywoman
Peng Shuai Peng Shuai (; ; born 8 January 1986) is a Chinese former professional tennis player. In February 2014, she was ranked as the List of WTA number 1 ranked doubles tennis players, world No. 1 doubles player by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA ...
at Indian Wells. Despite this, after Indian Wells she peaked at a career-high ranking of world No. 6 due to Janković's failures to defend her points. Li's losing streak continued, when she was upset in the Miami Open by
Johanna Larsson Johanna Larsson (; born 17 August 1988) is a Swedish former tennis player. In her career, she won two singles and 14 doubles titles on the WTA Tour, with 13 singles and 17 doubles titles on the ITF Women's Circuit. Her career-high WTA rankin ...
. With this loss, and
Andy Murray Sir Andrew Barron Murray (born 15 May 1987) is a British former professional tennis player and coach. He was ranked as the List of ATP number 1 ranked singles tennis players, world No. 1 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professio ...
's loss at Miami, both Australian Open finalists had yet to win a match since their first major final. She fell back to No. 7. Li then broke her losing streak by winning her first-round match against
Anastasija Sevastova Anastasija Sevastova (born 13 April 1990) is a Latvian professional tennis player. She achieved a career-high singles ranking of world No. 11 in October 2018, after reaching a Premier Mandatory final at the China Open. Sevastova has won four sin ...
in Stuttgart. However, she lost to
Sabine Lisicki Sabine Katharina Lisicki (; born 22 September 1989) is a German inactive professional tennis player. Lisicki turned professional in 2006, and her breakthrough came in 2009 when she reached the quarterfinals of the 2009 Wimbledon Championships ...
in the second round. Even though she was not able to defend all her Stuttgart ranking points, she rose back to No. 6. However, due to her disappointing results, Li Na sacked her husband as coach and hired Dane Michael Mortensen. She entered the Madrid Open as sixth seed. In the first two rounds, she defeated María José Martínez Sánchez and Iveta Benešová without much difficulty. In the third round she got the better of Roberta Vinci coming back from a set deficit. She then defeated
Bethanie Mattek-Sands Bethanie Mattek-Sands ( Bethanie Lynn Mattek; born March 23, 1985) is an American professional tennis player. She has won nine Grand Slam titles (five in women's doubles and four in mixed doubles), and an Olympic gold medal, and is a former w ...
after recovering from a break down in the deciding set. This victory marked her first semifinals appearance in Madrid, where she lost to eventual champion,
Petra Kvitová Petra Kvitová (; born 8 March 1990) is a Czech professional tennis player. Known for her powerful left-handed groundstrokes and variety, Kvitová has won 31 career singles titles, including two Grand Slam (tennis)#Tournaments, major titles ...
. Li's resurgence continued into the Italian Open. Seeded fourth, she received a bye in the first round. She won her opening match against
Lourdes Domínguez Lino Lourdes Domínguez Lino (; born 31 March 1981) is a former tennis player from Spain. She reached career-high rankings of world No. 40 in singles and 45 in doubles. Biography Tennis career In the 1999 Roland Garros, she won the junior girls' s ...
and defeated
Jarmila Gajdošová Jarmila Wolfe (née Gajdošová, formerly Groth; born 26 April 1987) is a Slovak-Australian former tennis player. In her career, she won two singles titles and one doubles title on the WTA Tour, as well as 14 singles and ten doubles titles on ...
and
Gréta Arn Gréta Arn (born 13 April 1979) is a Hungarian former professional tennis player of Danube Swabian Germans, German descent. She has won two titles on the WTA Tour, the 2007 Estoril Open in Portugal, and the 2011 ASB Classic in Auckland, New Ze ...
in the next two rounds en route to back-to-back semifinals on clay. However, she lost to
Samantha Stosur Samantha Jane Stosur (born 30 March 1984) is an Australian former professional tennis player. She is a former List of WTA number 1 ranked doubles tennis players, world No. 1 in doubles, a ranking which she first achieved on 6 February 2006 and ...
in two sets. Li won her first
major Major most commonly refers to: * Major (rank), a military rank * Academic major, an academic discipline to which an undergraduate student formally commits * People named Major, including given names, surnames, nicknames * Major and minor in musi ...
title at the
French Open The French Open (), also known as Roland-Garros (), is a tennis tournament organized by the French Tennis Federation annually at Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France. It is chronologically the second of the four Grand Slam (tennis), Grand Slam ...
on June 4; by doing so she made history and became the first tennis player from an East Asian and Asian country to win a Grand Slam singles event. Seeded sixth, she defeated
Barbora Záhlavová-Strýcová Barbora (; ) is a Czech and Slovak female given name. It was derived from the Greek word ''barbaros'' () meaning "foreign", a variant of " Barbara". It is the 36th most popular given name in the Czech Republic (as of 2007). Notable people with th ...
,
Sílvia Soler Espinosa Sílvia Soler Espinosa (; born 19 November 1987) is a retired Spanish tennis player. In her career, she won one doubles title on the WTA Tour, as well as five singles and two doubles titles on the ITF Women's Circuit. On 21 May 2012, she reach ...
,
Sorana Cîrstea Sorana Mihaela Cîrstea (; born 7 April 1990) is a Romanian professional tennis player. In singles, she achieved a career-high ranking of world No. 21 on 12 August 2013. In doubles, her career-best ranking is No. 35, which she reached on 9 March ...
, ninth seed Petra Kvitová, fourth seed Victoria Azarenka, seventh seed Maria Sharapova, and fifth seed and defending champion Francesca Schiavone in the final, a match that was watched by 330 million viewers worldwide. After the match, Li Na was praised by the Chinese media, and her popularity throughout China was expected to grow significantly in the coming months, as she became the first Chinese national, male or female, ever to win a tennis Grand Slam title in singles, ensuring her place in the sport's history. Following the French Open, Li rose to a career high ranking of world No. 4. As the second seed at
Eastbourne Eastbourne () is a town and seaside resort in East Sussex, on the south coast of England, east of Brighton and south of London. It is also a non-metropolitan district, local government district with Borough status in the United Kingdom, bor ...
, Li fell in the second round to Daniela Hantuchová. By virtue of the withdrawal of Kim Clijsters, Li was the third seed at
Wimbledon Wimbledon most often refers to: * Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London * Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships Wimbledon may also refer to: Places London * W ...
, her highest seeding at a Grand Slam. She beat
Alla Kudryavtseva Alla Alexandrovna Kudryavtseva (; born 3 November 1987) is a retired Russian tennis player. Kudryavtseva won one singles title and nine doubles titles on the WTA Tour, as well as two singles titles and 15 doubles titles on the ITF Women's Circ ...
in the first round but lost in the second round to eventual semifinalist Sabine Lisicki of Germany even though she had two match points at 5–3 and served for the match twice at 5–4 and 6–5. Li suffered a surprise knock-out at the 2011 US Open at the hands of 53rd ranked Romanian teen
Simona Halep Simona Halep (; born 27 September 1991) is a Romanian former professional tennis player. She was ranked as the List of WTA number 1 ranked singles tennis players, world No. 1 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) for 64 w ...
and she ended the coaching of Mortensen. Then at the China Open, Li suffered a first round defeat by Romanian player
Monica Niculescu Monica Niculescu (born 25 September 1987) is a Romanian professional tennis player. She has been WTA rankings, ranked by the Women's Tennis Association, WTA as high as No. 28 in singles and No. 11 in doubles. She has won three singles and 10 dou ...
. However, as a result of Vera Zvonareva and Samantha Stosur's inability to go past the third round, she was able to qualify for the
2011 WTA Tour Championships The 2011 WTA Tour Championships (also known for sponsorship reasons as the 2011 TEB BNP Paribas WTA Championships) was a tennis tournament played at Istanbul, Turkey from October 25 to October 30, 2011. It was the first time Turkey hosted the WTA ...
for the first time in her career. Li made her debut appearance at the WTA Championships in Istanbul. She was drawn in the White Group along with Maria Sharapova, Victoria Azarenka and Samantha Stosur. She beat Sharapova in her opening match but lost her other two matches, failing to make the semifinals. She finished the year as the world No. 5 after a memorable yet very inconsistent season. Li Na was nominated for two ESPY Sports Award categories: the "Annual Breakthrough Award" and "Annual Award for best female tennis players". She lost to
Blake Griffin Blake Austin Griffin (born March 16, 1989) is an American former professional basketball player. Griffin primarily played with the Los Angeles Clippers of the National Basketball Association (NBA) and played college basketball for the Oklahoma ...
and Serena Williams, respectively. On 17 and 18 December, Li participated in the Li Na & Friends Tennis Exhibition 2011 in Wuhan, China.


2012: First Premier-5 event champion

Li started her 2012 season in the
Hopman Cup The Hopman Cup is an international tennis tournament that plays mixed teams (one male and one female) on a country-by-country basis. It was first held in Perth, Western Australia each year from 1989 to 2019, played on indoor hardcourt, before b ...
with countryman Wu Di, who was also from Hubei province, where she won all three single rubbers against Marion Bartoli,
Anabel Medina Garrigues Ana Isabel Medina Garrigues (, ; born 31 July 1982) is a Spanish tennis coach and former professional player. As a player she reached a career-high ranking of world No. 16 in 2009, and won 11 singles and 28 doubles titles, including the 2008 ...
and
Jarmila Gajdošová Jarmila Wolfe (née Gajdošová, formerly Groth; born 26 April 1987) is a Slovak-Australian former tennis player. In her career, she won two singles titles and one doubles title on the WTA Tour, as well as 14 singles and ten doubles titles on ...
. It was her first win over Anabel Medina Garrigues in four meetings. It was a return to her form after being plagued by losses and early round exits in almost all her tournaments during the second half of 2011 following her Roland Garros triumph. Li then played in the
Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...
to defend her title. She defeated Ekaterina Makarova,
Chanelle Scheepers Chanelle Scheepers ( ; born 13 March 1984) is a retired South African tennis player. She won one singles and one doubles title on the WTA Tour, as well as 12 singles and 20 doubles titles on the ITF Women's Circuit in her career. On 10 Octobe ...
and Lucie Šafářová to reach the semifinals. In the semifinal, she came back from one set down to eke out the win against world No. 2, Petra Kvitová, the favorite to win the tournament. In the final, Li failed to defend her title, losing the match to Victoria Azarenka in three sets. Li began her
Australian Open The Australian Open (stylized ΛO) is a tennis tournament organised by Tennis Australia annually at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Victoria (state), Victoria, Australia. It is chronologically the first of the four Grand Slam (tennis), Grand Sl ...
campaign by cruising through the early rounds of the tournament, dispatching
Ksenia Pervak Ksenia Yuryevna Pervak (; born 27 May 1991) is a former tennis player from Russia. Pervak won one singles title on the WTA Tour, as well as nine singles and three doubles titles on the ITF Circuit. On 19 September 2011, she reached her best si ...
,
Olivia Rogowska Olivia Rogowska (; born 7 June 1991) is an Australian former tennis player. Both of her parents are Polish. The right-hander was born in and lives in Melbourne. Her career-high singles ranking is world No. 102, achieved on 11 August 2014. He ...
, and Anabel Medina Garrigues (after Garrigues retired due to an injured ankle), en route to meeting her 2011 Australian Open final conqueror Kim Clijsters in the fourth round. Kim Clijsters rolled her ankle at 3–3 and Li took the first set comfortably. Li held four match points at 6–2 in the second set tiebreak, but dropped six consecutive points to give Clijsters the second set due to unforced errors and poor shot selection. At 1–5 in the final set, Li began a resurgence by reeling off the next three games to close the gap to 4–5, but the Belgian managed to close out the match. Her unexpected loss left her in tears in her post-match press conference. After the disappointing Australian Open campaign, Li participated in the 2012 Fed Cup and won all three of her matches on home soil. She defeated Kei-Chen Changand and
Nigina Abduraimova Nigina Abduraimova (; born 7 July 1994) is an Uzbekistani professional tennis player. On 29 September 2014, she reached a career-high WTA singles ranking of No. 144, and on 25 September 2017, she reached world No. 175 in doubles. Abduraimova ha ...
during the round robin stages to push China to the promotional play-offs against
Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a landlocked country primarily in Central Asia, with a European Kazakhstan, small portion in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the Kazakhstan–Russia border, north and west, China to th ...
. She next played
Galina Voskoboeva Galina Olegovna Voskoboeva (; born 18 December 1984) is a Russian-born Kazakhstani former tennis player. She reached career-high rankings of world No. 42 in singles and No. 26 in doubles. Career Born in Moscow, Voskoboeva turned pro in 2002. Du ...
and won in three sets. This win sealed the tie and secured China's spot in the World Group II play-offs. Li then participated in the Open GDF Suez in Paris, but retired against
Tsvetana Pironkova Tsvetana Kirilova Pironkova ( ; born 13 September 1987) is a Bulgarians, Bulgarian former tennis player. Considered to be one of the best grass court players of her generation, she has been noted for her "cerebral" skills on the surface, reachi ...
in the first round of the tournament due to a back injury she sustained during her Fed Cup matches. She made back-to-back quarterfinal appearances at Indian Wells and
Miami Miami is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a populat ...
. At the Indian Wells Open, Li got a first round bye and faced a rematch with Galina Voskoboeva in the second round, which she won in three sets. Li recorded her first win over Zheng Jie, after losing the five earlier meetings. In the fourth round she comfortably won against Klára Zakopalová, who was on a roll, upsetting Vera Zvonareva and Daniela Hantuchová. In the quarterfinals she faced
Angelique Kerber Angelique Kerber (; born 18 January 1988) is a German former professional tennis player. She was ranked as the List of WTA number 1 ranked singles tennis players, world No. 1 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) for 34 wee ...
and lost in two sets. At the Miami Open, after receiving a first round bye, Li defeated
Melinda Czink Melinda Czink (born 22 October 1982) is a former professional tennis player from Hungary. On 21 September 2009, she reached her career-high singles ranking of world No. 37. Czink reached two WTA Tour singles finals. In 2005, she lost to Ana I ...
, Iveta Benešová, and Sabine Lisicki to secure a spot in the quarterfinals. Her win over Lisicki avenged her loss to the big serving German in the previous year's second round of the Wimbledon Championships. Li lost to world No. 2, Maria Sharapova, in the quarterfinals, her first in their last four meetings, where the Chinese beat the Russian all in straight sets. Li reached the final of the Italian Open, defeating Iveta Benešová, Chanelle Scheepers and Dominika Cibulková without dropping a set before receiving a walkover from Serena Williams in the semifinals. In the final she lost to Maria Sharapova in three thriller sets despite being a set up and leading 4–0 in the second and failing to convert a championship point in the final set. Li was seeded 7th at the
French Open The French Open (), also known as Roland-Garros (), is a tennis tournament organized by the French Tennis Federation annually at Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France. It is chronologically the second of the four Grand Slam (tennis), Grand Slam ...
, where she was the defending champion. She began her title defence by defeating Sorana Cîrstea,
Stéphanie Foretz Stéphanie Foretz (born 3 May 1981) is a former tennis player from France. Foretz won nine singles and 16 doubles titles on the ITF Women's Circuit. On 24 February 2003, she reached her career-high singles ranking of world No. 62. On 19 May 2 ...
and
Christina McHale Christina Maria McHale (born May 11, 1992) is an American professional tennis player. Her career-high WTA rankings are world No. 24 in singles and No. 35 in doubles. Known for an aggressive baseline game, McHale was recognized by ''The New Yor ...
in the first three rounds before suffering a fourth round upset bid by qualifier
Yaroslava Shvedova Yaroslava Vyacheslavovna Shvedova (; born 12 September 1987) is a Kazakhstani former professional tennis player. Before 2008, she represented her country of birth, Russia. She won one singles title and 13 doubles titles on the WTA Tour, plus o ...
. She fell out of the world top ten due to her French Open result. Li lost to Sorana Cîrstea in the second round of Wimbledon – her first loss against the Romanian. At the
2012 London Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012, were an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...
, Li, seeded 10th, crashed out in the first round to Slovakian Daniela Hantuchová. Her poor performance caused her to drop out of the world top ten for the second time in the year following the conclusion of the Games. After the Olympics, Li announced that she and Carlos Rodríguez, coach of former world No. 1 and seven-time major winner Justine Henin, have commenced a coaching relationship. Li's next tournament was the Rogers Cup, where she made it all the way to the final. She received a first round bye before seeing off home crowd favourite,
Eugenie Bouchard Eugenie "Genie" Bouchard (; , ; born February 25, 1994) is a Canadian professional tennis and pickleball player. At the 2014 Wimbledon Championships – Women's singles, 2014 Wimbledon Championships, she became the first Canadian-born player repr ...
, in the second round. In the third round, she fended off world No. 9,
Sara Errani Sara Errani (; born 29 April 1987) is an Italian professional tennis player. Errani is one of only seven women who have completed a career Grand Slam (tennis)#Golden Slam, Golden Slam in doubles. She is an Olympic Games gold medalist, a former ...
, and ended the hopes of Agnieszka Radwańska rising to No. 1 in the rankings by beating her in the quarterfinals. In the semifinals, Li rallied to come back from a 5–1 deficit in the third set to overcome Lucie Šafářová before losing to Petra Kvitová in the final. After the tournament she returned to the world top ten at No. 9. At the
Cincinnati Open The Cincinnati Open (also known as the Cincinnati Masters) is an annual professional tennis event held in Cincinnati, United States. Due to previous sponsorship, it has also been known as: the Thriftway ATP Championships, the Great American I ...
, Li had a first round bye before eliminating Sorana Cîrstea in the second round, avenging her loss to the Romanian in the second round of the
Wimbledon Championships The Wimbledon Championships, commonly called Wimbledon, is a tennis tournament organised by the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in collaboration with the Lawn Tennis Association annually in Wimbledon, London. It is chronologically the ...
. In the third round Li proved to be too strong for
Johanna Larsson Johanna Larsson (; born 17 August 1988) is a Swedish former tennis player. In her career, she won two singles and 14 doubles titles on the WTA Tour, with 13 singles and 17 doubles titles on the ITF Women's Circuit. Her career-high WTA rankin ...
and in the quarterfinals she convincingly defeated world No. 3 and top seed, Agnieszka Radwańska, in a match where Li only surrendered two games. She then edged Venus Williams in the semifinal (bringing their head-to-head to 3–0), before defeating fifth seed Angelique Kerber in the final; her fifth win against Kerber in six matches. This was her first title since the 2011 French Open and the sixth career title. By winning this tournament, she moved up one place in the rankings to world No. 8. At the US Open, Li cruised through the first two rounds with easy wins over
Heather Watson Heather Miriam Watson (born 19 May 1992) is a British professional tennis player. A former British No. 1, Watson has won nine titles over her career, including the mixed-doubles title at the 2016 Wimbledon Championships – Mixed doubles, 2016 ...
and
Casey Dellacqua Casey Dellacqua ( ; born 11 February 1985) is an Australian former professional tennis player and current commentator. Her best singles results on the WTA Tour have been semifinal appearances at the 2012 Texas Tennis Open and 2014 Birmingham ...
. However, her tournament run came to an abrupt end in the next round, when she upset in three sets by rising British teenager Laura Robson, who had defeated three-time champion Kim Clijsters in the previous round. This result meant that this was her first season since 2008 in which she failed to reach the quarterfinal stage at a Grand Slam tournament. Li then travelled to Tokyo to participate in the
Pan Pacific Open The Pan Pacific Open, currently sponsored by Toray Industries, is a women's outdoor hardcourt tennis tournament held annually in Tokyo, Japan. It is a WTA 500-level tournament. History The tournament was first held in 1973 as the Toray Sillook Ch ...
. She received a bye in the first round, and won her second round match against Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova to book a meeting with former world No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki in the third round. She won the first set, but eventually lost the match. Her exit from the tournament meant that her chances of participating in the upcoming 2012 WTA Tour Championships depended on her performance at the China Open. Li won the first round match against Francesca Schiavone. In the second round she recorded her first victory against Russian Nadia Petrova after six previous losses, who was coming off a title run at the Pan Pacific Open a week ago. She played compatriot Peng Shuai in the third round for a place in the quarters and emerged victorious in a topsy-turvy three set match lasting 2 hours and 28 minutes. In the quarterfinals, she faced defending champion Agnieszka Radwańska and played some high-quality tennis to defeat her for the third time this season. She lost her semifinal to Maria Sharapova; the Russian reeling off eight consecutive games to take the match. With this performance, she became the eighth and final player to qualify for the season-ending championships. For the 2012 WTA Tour Championships, Li was placed in the red group along with Victoria Azarenka, Serena Williams and Angelique Kerber. She played Serena Williams in her opening match and lost in two sets after failing to capitalise on her 4–1 first set lead. She defeated Angelique Kerber in her second match before losing to Azarenka in her third match; in the latter match, she had served for the first set at 5–4, but was broken and lost the set in a tie-break. This was the final match of her 2012 season, finishing the year ranked world No. 7. On 29 December 2012, Li beat Victoria Azarenka in an annual exhibition event in Hua Hin, Thailand.


2013: Second Australian Open final, return to top four & year-end No. 3

Li commenced her season at the first edition of the Shenzhen Open. She cruised to the final with straight-sets defeats over
Mandy Minella Mandy Minella (born 22 November 1985) is a Luxembourgish politician and former professional tennis player. Having made her debut on the WTA Tour in 2001, she peaked at No. 66 in the WTA singles rankings in September 2012, and No. 47 in doubles ...
, Julia Cohen,
Bojana Jovanovski Bojana may refer to: Places * Bojana (river), a river in Albania and Montenegro (known as ''Buna'' in Albanian) * Ada Bojana / Bojana Island, an island in Montenegro * Bojana, Croatia, a village near Čazma Name * Bojana (given name), a Slavic ...
and Peng Shuai, putting her in prime position to claim her seventh WTA title. Li saw off 5th seed Klára Zakopalová in three sets in the final to claim her first title of 2013 and seventh of her career. Li next played at the
Sydney International The Sydney International (formerly known as the Championship of New South Wales and New South Wales Open, with various title sponsors), formerly sponsored as the Apia International Sydney from 2012 to 2017, was a professional tennis tournament ...
, at which she made consecutive finals the two previous years, winning in 2011. She was pushed to the limit by Christina McHale but had little trouble with
Ayumi Morita is a Japanese former professional tennis player. She reached a career-high ranking of 40 in the world in October 2011. At junior level, she reached a combined career-high ranking of 3. Morita is known for strong and consistent two-handed gro ...
. She met young American
Madison Keys Madison Keys (born February 17, 1995) is an American professional tennis player. She has been WTA rankings, ranked as high as world No. 5 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association, WTA. Keys has won ten WTA Tour-level career singles ...
in the quarterfinals who proved to be a tougher challenge, with Li prevailing in three tight sets to book a semifinal showdown with world No. 4, Agnieszka Radwańska. Li looked the winner in the early stages of the match, but somewhat faltered, producing a high number of unforced errors which handed Radwańska the first set. She saved four match points on Radwańska's serve in the ninth game of the second set and three on her own serve in the tenth game. However, eventually she succumbed to the pressure and a half-volley into the net sealed the win for Radwańska in an hour and 32 minutes, putting an end to Li's Sydney reign. At the
Australian Open The Australian Open (stylized ΛO) is a tennis tournament organised by Tennis Australia annually at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Victoria (state), Victoria, Australia. It is chronologically the first of the four Grand Slam (tennis), Grand Sl ...
, Li easily stormed through to the quarterfinals, where she faced world No. 4 Agnieszka Radwańska, who had not dropped a set during a 13-match winning streak. Li became the first player to defeat her this season and advanced to the semifinals where she ousted world No. 2, Maria Sharapova, in straight sets, who had only dropped a record-low nine games in the tournament. This marked Li's second Australian Open final appearance in three years, finishing runner-up to Kim Clijsters in 2011. In the final, Li was hampered by injuries, falling over on two occasions. The first of which occurred at 1–3 in the second set, a fall that saw Li incur a 10-minute medical timeout. She fell over a second time after the Australia Day fireworks break, not only twisting her left ankle once more but also heavily knocking the rear of her head on the court, causing a momentary black-out. Despite being severely hindered in her movement, she continued playing but eventually lost the match in three sets to Victoria Azarenka. The left ankle injury she sustained in the Australian Open decider forced her to withdraw from subsequent tournaments including the
Qatar Qatar, officially the State of Qatar, is a country in West Asia. It occupies the Geography of Qatar, Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it shares Qatar–Saudi Arabia border, its sole land b ...
and
Indian Wells Open The BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells is an annual professional tennis tournament held in Indian Wells, California, United States. It is played on outdoor hardcourts at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden, and is held in March. The tournament is pa ...
, plus an exhibition match at the BNP Paribas Showdown in Hong Kong in which she was scheduled to play former world No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki. After being sidelined for seven weeks, Li made a return to the competition at the Miami Open as the fifth seed. After a first round bye, she won her second round against
Kiki Bertens Kiki Bertens (; born 10 December 1991) is a Dutch former professional tennis player. Her career-high WTA rankings#Current rankings, singles ranking was world No. 4, which she reached on 13 May 2019, becoming the highest-ranked Dutch female playe ...
in two quick sets without dropping serve in her first match since the Australian Open final. Next up she faced
Varvara Lepchenko Varvara Petrivna Lepchenko (born May 21, 1986) is an Uzbekistani-born American professional tennis player. She is of Ukrainian descent and played for Uzbekistan before relocating to the United States. Lepchenko won a singles title on the WT ...
and
Garbiñe Muguruza Garbiñe Muguruza Blanco (; born 8 October 1993) is a Venezuelan-born Spanish former professional tennis player. She was ranked as the List of WTA number 1 ranked singles tennis players, world No. 1 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Asso ...
and defeated both in straight sets to set up a quarterfinal match against world No. 1 Serena Williams. Despite leading 5–2 in the second set and holding a set point on Williams' serve, she did not manage to find a way to capitalise and went on to lose the match in a tiebreak. Li's next tournament was the
Porsche Tennis Grand Prix The Stuttgart Open, also known by its sponsored name Porsche Tennis Grand Prix, is a women's tennis tournament held in Stuttgart, Germany (until 2005, in Filderstadt, a southern suburb of Stuttgart). Held since 1978, the tournament is the oldest p ...
, the first bigger
clay court A clay court is one of the types of tennis court on which the sport of tennis is played. Clay courts are built on a foundation of crushed stone, brick, shale, and other construction aggregate, aggregate, with a thin layer of fine clay particles ...
event of the season. As the second seed, she received a bye in the first round. She swept past qualifier
Mirjana Lučić-Baroni Mirjana Lučić-Baroni (; ; born 9 March 1982) is a Croatian inactive professional tennis player. She enjoyed a meteoric rise on the WTA Tour in the late 1990s, during which she set various "youngest-ever" records. She captured the women's double ...
in the second round, setting up an encounter with Petra Kvitová in the quarterfinals. She disposed of Kvitová and then surprise semifinalist Bethanie Mattek-Sands both in straight sets to advance to the final for the first time, seeking her eighth career title. The final was a contest between her and Maria Sharapova, whose passage to the final included three three-set matches each lasting over three hours. She, however, handily defeated Li in just over 90 minutes, increasing her clay-court winning streak to 16 and avenging her Australian Open semifinal loss to Li earlier in the year. Li was then stunned by lucky loser Madison Keys in the first round of the Madrid Open the following week, her first early tournament exit of the season. She returned to the Italian Open as the defending finalist. After a first round bye, she defeated Zheng Jie in straight sets then squared off with former doubles partner Jelena Janković, who defeated Li in a marathon match in which Li's inconsistency proved to her be undoing, committing 62 unforced errors. As one of the favourites, Li's quest for a second Grand Slam title began when she played Anabel Medina Garrigues in the opening round of Roland Garros, winning in two sets. Her struggles on clay continued, however, as she fell victim to Bethanie Mattek-Sands, ranked 67th, in a rain-interrupted second round match – losing in three sets, bringing her disappointing clay-court season to a close. Li got her grass-court season off to a winning start by beating
Alizé Cornet Alizé Cornet (; born 22 January 1990) is a French professional tennis player. She has won six singles and three doubles titles on the WTA Tour, as well as three singles and three doubles titles on the ITF Women's World Tennis Tour, ITF Circuit. ...
in the first round of the
Eastbourne International The Eastbourne Open (also known as Eastbourne International, formerly Rothesay) is a tennis tournament on the WTA Tour and the ATP Tour held at the Devonshire Park Lawn Tennis Club, Eastbourne, United Kingdom. Held since 1974, it is classified as ...
, at which she was seeded second. A quarterfinal berth against Elena Vesnina was secured after her second round opponent Marion Bartoli pulled out due to a viral illness. The Russian ended Li's run and went on to win the tournament. Li was the sixth seed at
Wimbledon Wimbledon most often refers to: * Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London * Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships Wimbledon may also refer to: Places London * W ...
. She defeated
Michaëlla Krajicek Michaëlla Krajicek (; born 9 January 1989) is a Dutch former tennis player. She has won three singles and five doubles titles on the WTA Tour, as well as one WTA 125 tournaments, WTA 125 doubles title, and 14 titles in singles and 24 in double ...
in the first round and
Simona Halep Simona Halep (; born 27 September 1991) is a Romanian former professional tennis player. She was ranked as the List of WTA number 1 ranked singles tennis players, world No. 1 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) for 64 w ...
in a rollercoaster three set match. In the third round against the No. 32 seed Klára Zakopalová, Li lost the first set, but won the match in three sets after Zakopalová failed to serve out the match. In the fourth round she dispatched Roberta Vinci to secure a spot in the last eight for the third time. After the match, she revealed that the secret to her success was the slice practice that her husband Jiang Shan gave her prior to the match. In her quarterfinal clash with Agnieszka Radwańska, she was leading 5–4 in the first set and was a set point up when she hit an ace that was wrongly called out. Li didn't challenge the call, and lost the set in a tiebreak where she was also leading 5–3. She mounted a comeback to win the second set, coming from 4–2 down. A brief rain delay halted proceedings at the beginning of the third. When play resumed, it was Radwańska who raced to a 5–2 lead. Li saved eight match points, but eventually lost the match in 2 hours 47 minutes. Li then competed at the Rogers Cup in Toronto, at which she made the final last year. After enjoying a bye in the first round, she defeated Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in two easy sets, followed by hard-fought wins over in-form players Ana Ivanovic (in a final set tie-break, after surviving 2–5) and Dominika Cibulková to reach the semifinals, where she lost to
Sorana Cîrstea Sorana Mihaela Cîrstea (; born 7 April 1990) is a Romanian professional tennis player. In singles, she achieved a career-high ranking of world No. 21 on 12 August 2013. In doubles, her career-best ranking is No. 35, which she reached on 9 March ...
. At the San Diego Open, she notched wins over
Lauren Davis Lauren Davis (born October 9, 1993) is an American professional tennis player. Known for her aggressive backhand, speed, and clay-court strength, she has won two singles titles on the WTA Tour and reached a career-high singles WTA rankings, ran ...
and Angelique Kerber before receiving a walkover from Agnieszka Radwańska in the quarterfinals after the Pole pulled out for personal reasons. In her semifinal against Serena Williams, she was broken when serving for both sets and was beaten by the eventual champion. Seeded fifth at the US Open, she defeated Olga Govortsova and
Sofia Arvidsson Lena Sofia Alexandra Arvidsson (born 16 February 1984) is a Swedish professional padel player and a former tennis player. In her tennis career, she won two singles titles and one doubles title on the WTA Tour, as well as 20 singles and 13 doubl ...
in straight sets and then got revenge on Laura Robson in the third round, the same stage where Robson defeated her last year. She then breezed past former world No. 1 Jelena Janković in straight sets. Upon defeating Janković, she reached the quarterfinals of the US Open for only the second time in her career. There she beat Ekaterina Makarova to reach her first US Open semifinal (as well as it being the first time a Chinese woman made the US Open semifinals) before Serena Williams again ended her run in straight sets, needing six match points to do so. She then headed to Beijing to take part in the 2013 China Open as the home crowd favourite, defeating Daniela Hantuchová, Bojana Jovanovski and Sabine Lisicki in straight sets before falling to Petra Kvitová in the quarterfinals. On 27 September, Li qualified for the 2013 WTA Tour Championships. She won all three of her round robin matches against Sara Errani, Jelena Janković and Victoria Azarenka, thus qualifying for the semifinals for the first time. Upon beating Petra Kvitová her ranking rose to a new career high of world No. 3, the highest-ever ranking for a female tennis player from an East Asian and Asian country and overtaking Maria Sharapova and Agnieszka Radwańska. In the final, she made a strong start, blasting ten winners en route to winning the first set against Serena Williams, but ran out of gas at three-all in the second, losing nine games in a row to lose the match.


2014: Australian Open champion and retirement

Li started her 2014 season as the defending champion at the Shenzhen Open. She defeated wildcard and former world No. 2 Vera Zvonareva in the first round,
Nadiia Kichenok Nadiia Viktorivna Kichenok (, born 20 July 1992) is a Ukrainian professional tennis player. On 31 January 2022, she reached a career-high of No. 29 in the WTA doubles rankings. Kichenok has won nine doubles titles on the WTA Tour, including fo ...
in the second round, Monica Niculescu in the quarterfinals and
Annika Beck Annika Beck (; born 16 February 1994) is a German former professional tennis player. She started playing tennis at the age of four when introduced to the game by her parents. A baseliner whose favorite shot is forehand, and favorite surface is ...
in the semifinals to reach her first final of the year and setting up the second all-Chinese final in WTA history in the process, where she defeated Peng Shuai in straight sets to win her eighth career singles title. This marked the first time in Li's career where she had successfully defended a title of any kind. At the
Australian Open The Australian Open (stylized ΛO) is a tennis tournament organised by Tennis Australia annually at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Victoria (state), Victoria, Australia. It is chronologically the first of the four Grand Slam (tennis), Grand Sl ...
, Li competed as the fourth seed. She made quick work of current junior top-2 players
Ana Konjuh Ana Konjuh (; born 27 December 1997) is a Croatian tennis player. A successful junior player, Konjuh won both the 2013 Australian Open – Girls' singles, singles and 2013 Australian Open – Girls' doubles, doubles junior events at the 2013 A ...
and
Belinda Bencic Belinda Bencic (; born 10 March 1997) is a Swiss professional tennis player. She has a career-high WTA rankings, ranking of world No. 4 which she achieved in February 2020. Bencic has won nine career singles titles, including Tennis at the 2020 ...
in the first two rounds. Having lost the first set against
Lucie Šafářová Lucie Šafářová (; born 4 February 1987) is a Czech professional tennis player who was ranked List of WTA number 1 ranked doubles tennis players, world No. 1 in doubles, and No. 5 in singles. She is a five-time Grand Slam champion in doubles ...
, she fended off a match point when trailing 5–6 in the second, before rebounding in the tiebreak and decisive set to avoid the upset. She then cruised past Ekaterina Makarova, Flavia Pennetta, and Eugenie Bouchard to reach her third Australian Open final in 4 years, where she defeated first-time major singles finalist and 20th seed, Dominika Cibulková, in straight sets to claim her first Australian Open title, thus becoming the first East Asian and Asian Australian Open champion and fourth woman to win the title after being match point down. Li extended her winning streak to thirteen consecutive matches by defeating
Magdaléna Rybáriková Magdaléna Rybáriková (; born 4 October 1988) is a Slovak former professional tennis player. In her career, she won four singles titles and one doubles title on the WTA Tour. Rybáriková reached the semifinals of the 2017 Wimbledon Champion ...
in her opener at the
Qatar Ladies Open The Qatar Open, currently sponsored by TotalEnergies and called the Qatar TotalEnergies Open, is a professional tennis WTA 1000 tournament held in Doha, Qatar. Held since 2001, this WTA Tour event was a Tier I-tournament in 2008, and was played o ...
. She then suffered her first loss of the season to qualifier
Petra Cetkovská Petra Cetkovská (; born 8 February 1985) is a retired Czech tennis player. Having turned professional in 2000, she reached a career-high singles ranking of world No. 25, on 18 June 2012. Over her career, Cetkovská defeated top-ten players Mari ...
in a tight three set contest in the third round. After the tournament, Li reached a new career-high singles ranking of world No. 2. Li's next scheduled event was the
Indian Wells Open The BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells is an annual professional tennis tournament held in Indian Wells, California, United States. It is played on outdoor hardcourts at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden, and is held in March. The tournament is pa ...
, where she was unable to compete the previous year due to injury. Seeded first at a Premier Mandatory event for the first time, she received a bye in the first round before registering straight set victories over countrywoman Zheng Jie,
Karolína Plíšková Karolína Plíšková (; born 21 March 1992) is a Czech professional tennis player. She has been ranked as the world No. 1 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA), holding the position for a total of eight weeks, and has been ...
and
Aleksandra Wozniak Aleksandra Wozniak (; born September 7, 1987) is a Canadian former tennis player. She turned professional in November 2005, and achieved a career-best ranking of No. 21 in June 2009, making her the fifth highest-ranked Canadian singles player of ...
en route to a quarterfinal clash with Dominika Cibulková, a rematch of the Australian Open final. Though Li committed 54 unforced errors, she prevailed in three sets and faced Flavia Pennetta in the semifinals. There, she was upset in straight sets by the 20th-seeded Italian and eventual champion. At the Miami Open, she received a first-round bye and walkover in the second round due to the withdrawal of
Alisa Kleybanova Alisa Mikhailovna Kleybanova (, born 15 July 1989) is a Russian former tennis player. Her career-high singles ranking is world No. 20, achieved in February 2011. In her career, she won two singles titles and five doubles titles on the WTA Tour. ...
. Li defeated Madison Keys, Carla Suárez Navarro and Caroline Wozniacki en route to a semifinal against Dominika Cibulková, who was projected to make her top-ten debut with her previous win over Agnieszka Radwańska. Li improved her perfect record against the Slovakian to 7–0 and booked her place in her first Premier Mandatory final. In a final featuring the world's top-2 players, Li raced to a 5–2 lead in the first set and wasted a set point, before her opponent, world No. 1 Serena Williams, rallied to steal the set 7–5. Li only managed to win a single game in the second set. Following a 21–3 start to the season, Li was forced out of the
2014 Porsche Tennis Grand Prix The 2014 Porsche Tennis Grand Prix was a women's tennis tournament played on indoor clay courts. It was the 37th edition of the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix, and was part of the Premier tournaments of the 2014 WTA Tour. It took place at the Porsc ...
due to a left knee injury, where she was the finalist in 2013. She started her clay-court campaign at the Madrid Open, where she recorded wins over
Kirsten Flipkens Kirsten "Flipper" Flipkens (; born 10 January 1986) is a Belgian tennis coach and a former professional player. She reached a career-high ranking of No. 13 by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA). Flipkens has won one singles title on the WTA T ...
and Zheng Jie in the first two rounds. Li then battled past
Sloane Stephens Sloane Stephens (born March 20, 1993) is an American professional tennis player. She has achieved a career-best ranking of world No. 3 by the Women's Tennis Association, WTA. Stephens has won eight WTA Tour-level singles titles, including the 2 ...
in three sets, and was again involved in a narrow three setter in her quarterfinal against Maria Sharapova, eventually succumbing to the Russian after taking the first set comfortably. At the Italian Open, Li beat Australians Casey Dellacqua (for her 500th career win) and Sam Stosur, before suffering her first loss to Sara Errani in the quarterfinals. After the match, Li told reporters that she had vomited less than 20 minutes prior to stepping onto the court due to food poisoning. At the
French Open The French Open (), also known as Roland-Garros (), is a tennis tournament organized by the French Tennis Federation annually at Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France. It is chronologically the second of the four Grand Slam (tennis), Grand Slam ...
, she was upset by French youngster
Kristina Mladenovic Kristina "Kiki" Mladenovic (born 14 May 1993) is a French professional tennis player and a former List of WTA number 1 ranked doubles tennis players, world No. 1 in doubles. Her best singles ranking is world No. 10. She is a nine-time Grand Slam ...
in the opening round. This was also Li's earliest loss in the tournament. Li's first round loss contributed to three negative tennis records. Due to fellow 2014 Australian Open men's champion
Stan Wawrinka Stanislas "Stan" Wawrinka (; born 28 March 1985) is a Swiss professional tennis player. He has been ranked world No. 3 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), first achieved on 27 January 2014. Wawrinka has won 16 ATP T ...
losing in the first round as well, it was the first time in the history of tennis that the reigning Grand Slam winners were ousted in the opening round of their next major. Due to top seed Serena Williams losing in the second round, it was the first time in Open Era history that the two top seeded women have lost before the third round at any Grand Slam tournament. After No. 3 seed Agnieszka Radwańska lost in the third round, it was also the first time in the Open Era that none of the top-3 seeds advanced past the third round. Li chose not to play a warm-up event before the third major of the season got underway. Her dip in form continued at the
2014 Wimbledon Championships The 2014 Wimbledon Championships was a tennis tournament played on grass courts at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon, London in the United Kingdom. It was the 128th edition of the The Championships, Wimbledon, Wimbledon C ...
, where she was eliminated in the third round by Barbora Záhlavová-Strýcová, having beaten
Paula Kania Paula or PAULA may refer to: Arts and entertainment Fictional characters * Paula, in television sitcom '' Dr. Cándido Pérez'' * Paula, in video game ''EarthBound'' * Paula, in ''The Larry Sanders Show'' * Paula Campbell (''EastEnders''), in ...
and Yvonne Meusburger in the first and second rounds, respectively. In July, Li and coach Rodríguez parted ways. Having not played since Wimbledon due to a left knee injury which required surgery, Li announced her retirement from professional tennis on 19 September 2014. She ended her career ranked world No. 6 by the WTA. That year she was named one of ESPNW's Impact 25.


Popularity and endorsements

As the most successful East Asian, and Asian tennis player ever, Li has become one of the most well-known and marketable athletes in the world. In 2013, Li appeared on the cover of ''
Time Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...
'' magazine, which named her in its annual list of the 100 Most Influential People in the World; Li being one of only four athletes to be named on the list. Former world No. 1
Chris Evert Christine Marie Evert (born December 21, 1954) is an American former professional tennis player. One of the most successful players of all time, she was ranked as the world No. 1 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) for 2 ...
writes: "Tennis has exploded in China. The country now has some 15 million tennis players; 116 million watched Li win the French Open. That kind of exposure is crucial to our sport, and it never would have happened without Li. At tournaments, I've seen her charm the crowds. When she smiles, everyone melts. She's just such a breath of fresh air. Her friendly on-court demeanour as well as her hilariously-witty post-match interviews brings a smile to everyone's face." Li also appeared on the cover of 26 May 2014 edition of ''Time'' magazine, which featured an article titled "The Passion of Li Na", in which author Hannah Beech described Li as a world class sports idol, inspiring millions of Chinese people to regard her as an icon of pursuing independent character and freedom of thought. In 2012, ''
Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The co ...
'' listed Li as No. 85 in the
Forbes Celebrity 100 Celebrity 100 was an annual list compiled and published by ''Forbes'' magazine from 1999 to 2020, preceded by the ''Forbes'' Top 40 entertainers list. Until 2014, the rankings were made based on a complex combination of factors, including earnin ...
list. Li, along with the fellow tennis players
Maria Sharapova Maria Yuryevna Sharapova (, ; born 19 April 1987) is a Russian former professional tennis player. She was ranked as the world No. 1 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) for 21 weeks. Sharapova won 36 WTA Tour-level sin ...
and
Serena Williams Serena Jameka Williams (born September 26, 1981) is an American former professional tennis player. She was ranked as the List of WTA number 1 ranked singles tennis players, world No. 1 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WT ...
, were the only three female athletes who cracked the Top 100 earning list. Li was ranked No. 5 and No.8 on the
Forbes China Celebrity 100 The ''Forbes'' China Celebrity 100 is a list published annually by ''Forbes'' that ranks the influence of Chinese celebrities. First published in 2004, it is similar to the Celebrity 100 also published by ''Forbes''. Factors that are taken into ...
list in 2012 and 2014 respectively. Li is affectionately called "Big Sister Na" ( zh, c=娜姐 , p=Nàjiě) among Chinese communities and is considered a "strong, unbending and unyielding"
role model A role model is a person whose behaviour, example, or success serves as a model to be emulated by others, especially by younger people. The term ''role model'' is credited to sociologist Robert K. Merton, who hypothesized that individuals compa ...
. She has not only become a household name across China but a global icon, with her
Sina Weibo Weibo (), or Sina Weibo (), is a Chinese microblogging ( weibo) website. Launched by Sina Corporation on 14 August 2009, it is one of the biggest social media platforms in China, with over 582 million monthly active users (252 million daily ...
microblogging Microblogging is a form of blogging using short posts without titles known as microposts or status updates. Microblogs "allow users to exchange small elements of content such as short sentences, individual images, or video links", which may be the ...
having over 23 million followers as of October 2014. Her perceived rebelliousness, exemplified by the rose
tattoo A tattoo is a form of body modification made by inserting tattoo ink, dyes, or pigments, either indelible or temporary, into the dermis layer of the skin to form a design. Tattoo artists create these designs using several tattooing processes ...
on her chest and her previous run-ins with government sports programs, also helped boost her popularity. On 15 April 2015, Li received the Laureus Academy Exceptional Achievement award at the
Laureus World Sports Awards The Laureus World Sports Awards is an annual award ceremony honouring individuals and teams from the world of sports along with sporting achievements throughout the year. It was established in 1999 by Laureus Sport for Good Foundation foundin ...
held in
Shanghai Shanghai, Shanghainese: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: is a direct-administered municipality and the most populous urban area in China. The city is located on the Chinese shoreline on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the ...
. She was also a nominee for the Laureus World Sportswoman of the Year award, alongside
Serena Williams Serena Jameka Williams (born September 26, 1981) is an American former professional tennis player. She was ranked as the List of WTA number 1 ranked singles tennis players, world No. 1 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WT ...
.
Nike Nike often refers to: * Nike, Inc., a major American producer of athletic shoes, apparel, and sports equipment * Nike (mythology), a Greek goddess who personifies victory Nike may also refer to: People * Nike (name), a surname and feminine giv ...
was Li's clothing and footwear sponsor for many years, dating back to her early tennis career. Li used Babolat Pure Drive GT rackets. In 2009, Li was signed by
IMG img or IMG is an abbreviation for image. img or IMG may also refer to: Science, technology, and mathematics *IMG (file format), file that stores a complete and uncompressed copy of the contents of a storage device * IMG, a prefix for camera ima ...
. She rose to fame after her Roland Garros triumph, and since had signed seven endorsements in multiple-year terms. Her agent, Max Eisenbud, also managed to negotiate a deal allowing Li to wear other sponsors' patches on her
Nike Nike often refers to: * Nike, Inc., a major American producer of athletic shoes, apparel, and sports equipment * Nike (mythology), a Greek goddess who personifies victory Nike may also refer to: People * Nike (name), a surname and feminine giv ...
tennis shirt, something not usually permitted by the sportswear giant. In 2019,
Peter Chan Peter Ho-sun Chan (born 28 November 1962), also known as Peter Chan, is a Hong Kong-born filmmaker best known for directing films that span a wide range of genres, including romantic comedies, musical dramas, and historical epics. He is r ...
directed a biopic about Li Na's life, based on her autobiography, with a release date yet unknown.


Playing style

Li was an aggressive baseliner whose game was founded upon her quick reflexes, athleticism and powerful groundstrokes that achieved precision, placement and depth. Li's crosscourt forehand tended to be her favourite shot, hit with great accuracy and pace, although her backhand was said to be the more consistent and reliable groundstroke, both of which she was known to unleash unpredictably to all areas of the court to dictate play. She boasted an exceptional backhand down-the-line, which was very effective at producing winners or setting up a weak reply from the opponent. Many tennis analysts considered Li one of the cleanest and hardest hitting players on tour, capable of overpowering and outgunning opponents from the baseline. Although she did not possess an overwhelmingly powerful serve, it was very well placed, earning her aces or unreturnables on occasion, however it often became a liability when she lost confidence under pressure, resulting in many double faults. Li employed a solid defensive game combining great footwork, speed and lateral movement. Her ability to turn defense into offense was one of her biggest assets as she hit well on the run and scrambled around the court with ease. Having been an accomplished doubles player, she was comfortable when playing at the net, often moving forward to take advantage of a short ball or finish off an extended rally. Li's inconsistency was cited as her main weakness throughout her career, as she was prone to streaky and erratic play accompanied by a high unforced error count. Since her shots were usually hit hard and flat with minimal topspin or slice, her game lacked variety. Her emotions on court have hurt her game during tight moments. Under the tutelage of Carlos Rodríguez, Li adopted more of an all-round game, implementing a forehand with additional topspin and frequent net approaches into her arsenal, as well as improved consistency, mental stability, mobility and coordination.


Rivalries


Li vs. Sharapova

Li Na had a see-saw rivalry with
Maria Sharapova Maria Yuryevna Sharapova (, ; born 19 April 1987) is a Russian former professional tennis player. She was ranked as the world No. 1 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) for 21 weeks. Sharapova won 36 WTA Tour-level sin ...
, with the latter winning their first five matches dating back to 2005, including Li's Grand Slam debut at the
2005 Australian Open The 2005 Australian Open was a Grand Slam tennis tournament held in Melbourne, Australia from 17 until 30 January 2005. Roger Federer was unsuccessful in defending his 2004 title, being defeated in the semi-finals by eventual champion Marat Safin ...
. Li won her first match against Sharapova in the 2009 Birmingham semifinals, starting a series of four consecutive wins against Sharapova. Li beat Sharapova again in Birmingham in 2010, this time in the final, and in the semifinals of the 2011 French Open, on her way to winning her maiden Grand Slam. At the Year-end Championships later that year, Li defeated Sharapova in the round robin stage. In 2012, Li and Sharapova met three times, with Sharapova winning all three of their matches, the most notable being the final of the clay-court tournament in Rome. Li won the first set and looked headed for victory when she went 4–0 up in the second due to an effectively aggressive gameplan which saw her take 15 of 17 points. With victory nearing Li suddenly saw her accuracy shatter and 24 unforced errors let Sharapova back into the match to eventually take a three set win over Li. They met again in the 2013 Australian Open semifinals, where Li achieved her most notable victory over Sharapova, winning in straight sets and giving up just four games (Sharapova had lost just nine entering the match). A few months later at the 2013 Porsche Grand Prix Tennis in Stuttgart, Sharapova defended her title by defeating Li in the final. The pair was involved in another three set battle in the 2014 Mutua Madrid Open quarterfinals, where Sharapova eventually triumphed even though Li was up a set and a break. Sharapova led Li in the head-to-head 10–5.


Li vs. Radwańska

Li and
Agnieszka Radwańska Agnieszka Roma Radwańska (; born 6 March 1989) is a Polish former professional tennis player and current coach. She was ranked world No. 2 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA), in July 2012. Radwańska won 20 WTA Tour sing ...
first played each other in 2009. Li led the head-to-head 6–5. After their first four matches in 2009 and 2010 the head-to-head was even at 2–2. This included a victory each at the Wimbledon Championships; Radwańska winning in 2009 and Li in 2010. In 2012 Li and Radwańska met 4 times, with Li taking 3 victories. Li lost their meeting in the Stuttgart quarter-final in three sets, but dominated in Montréal, Cincinnati and Beijing. Li prevented Radwańska from taking the world No. 1 ranking off
Victoria Azarenka Victoria Fiodaraŭna Azarenka (born 31 July 1989) is a Belarusian professional tennis player. She has been ranked as the world No. 1 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA), having held the position for a total of 51 weeks ...
with the first two victories, whilst she also ended her title defence in Beijing, securing the eighth and final place in the year-end championships in the process. In 2013 both won the first tournament they entered. They were both undefeated when they met each other in the semifinals of their second tournament of the year at Sydney. Radwańska beat Li and eventually won the tournament. This was Li's first defeat of 2013, while Radwańska remained unbeaten. In the
2013 Australian Open The 2013 Australian Open was a tennis tournament that took place in Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Australia, from 14 to 27 January 2013. It was the 101st edition of the Australian Open, and the first Grand Slam event of the year. The tournament c ...
quarterfinals, Li handed Radwańska her first loss of the season. They met again at Wimbledon in the quarterfinals, with Radwańska eking out a close three set win.


Li vs. Clijsters

Li and
Kim Clijsters Kim Antonie Lode Clijsters (; born 8 June 1983) is a Belgian former professional tennis player. She was ranked as the world No. 1 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) for 20 weeks, and as the world No. 1 in women's double ...
formed a well-known rivalry, having met eight times between 2006 and 2012. Clijsters won their head-to-head 6–2, including 4–0 at Grand Slams. Li's maiden Grand Slam quarterfinal was at
Wimbledon Wimbledon most often refers to: * Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London * Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships Wimbledon may also refer to: Places London * W ...
in 2006 in which she was defeated by the second-seeded Clijsters in straight sets. Li's second Grand Slam quarterfinal was at the 2009 US Open, and again it was against Clijsters, who had recently launched a comeback after starting a family, who prevailed in straight sets. One of Li's two wins against Clijsters came in the final of the 2011 Sydney International. Li had trailed 0–5 in the first set before coming back to win the set in a tiebreak en route to complete a remarkable straight-sets victory and deny Clijsters a third Sydney title. They would meet again only two weeks later, in the final of the 2011 Australian Open, a match which had historical proportions because Li would have become the first player from an Asian country to win a Grand Slam singles title or Clijsters would win her first non-US Open Grand Slam title. Both players came into the match having defeated the world's top two players in the semifinals: Li over
Caroline Wozniacki Caroline Wozniacki (; born 11 July 1990) is an inactive Danish professional tennis player. She has been ranked as the List of WTA number 1 ranked singles tennis players, world No. 1 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association, WTA, hold ...
and Clijsters over
Vera Zvonareva Vera Igorevna Zvonareva ( rus, Вера Игоревна Звонарёва, p=ˈvʲerə ˈiɡərʲɪvnə zvənɐˈrʲɵvə, a=Vera zvonareva.ogg; born 7 September 1984) is a Russian former professional tennis player. Her career-high singles ran ...
. After Li took the first set, she proceeded to lose the next two, giving Clijsters her only Australian Open title. The pair met again at the same tournament twelve months later, this time in the fourth round. Similar to the previous year's final, Li won the first set before eventually losing in three sets; this time around she had held four match points in the second-set tiebreak.


Li vs. Azarenka

List of all matches Li and
Victoria Azarenka Victoria Fiodaraŭna Azarenka (born 31 July 1989) is a Belarusian professional tennis player. She has been ranked as the world No. 1 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA), having held the position for a total of 51 weeks ...
met eleven times between 2008 and 2013. Azarenka led the head-to-head 6–5 overall, and 2–1 in championship matches, but Li led 2–1 in Grand Slam matches. Their first meeting was in the final of the 2008 Mondial Australian Women's Hardcourts tournament (which has since been renamed the
Brisbane International The Brisbane International established in 2009 is a professional tennis tournament played on Tennis court#Hard courts, outdoor hardcourts in Brisbane, Queensland in Australia. It is a WTA 500 tournaments, WTA 500 tournament and an ATP World T ...
), which Li Na won in three sets after Azarenka had won the first. Azarenka's first victory over Li was in the third round of the 2010 Rogers Cup. They met three times in 2011, two of which were at Grand Slams, with Li winning on both occasions, before Azarenka won their third meeting at the
2011 WTA Tour Championships The 2011 WTA Tour Championships (also known for sponsorship reasons as the 2011 TEB BNP Paribas WTA Championships) was a tennis tournament played at Istanbul, Turkey from October 25 to October 30, 2011. It was the first time Turkey hosted the WTA ...
, en route to reaching the final. They met a further three times in
2012 2012 was designated as: *International Year of Cooperatives *International Year of Sustainable Energy for All Events January *January 4 – The Cicada 3301 internet hunt begins. * January 12 – Peaceful protests begin in the R ...
, with Azarenka winning each time. They met in the final of the
Sydney International The Sydney International (formerly known as the Championship of New South Wales and New South Wales Open, with various title sponsors), formerly sponsored as the Apia International Sydney from 2012 to 2017, was a professional tennis tournament ...
, where the Belarusian won in three sets after breaking the defending champion Li at 4–3 in the decider. Azarenka was also victorious in their meetings at
Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...
and the year-end championships. Their most notable meeting to date was in the final of the
2013 Australian Open The 2013 Australian Open was a tennis tournament that took place in Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Australia, from 14 to 27 January 2013. It was the 101st edition of the Australian Open, and the first Grand Slam event of the year. The tournament c ...
. Both players entered the championship match with one Grand Slam title each (Azarenka won the
2012 Australian Open The 2012 Australian Open was a tennis tournament that took place in Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Australia, from 16 to 29 January 2012. It was the 100th edition of the Australian Open, and the first Grand Slam event of the year. The tournamen ...
, whilst Li won the 2011 French Open), and in very good form, with Azarenka only conceding one set during the tournament and Li not having dropped a set and also having defeated two top-4 players (
Agnieszka Radwańska Agnieszka Roma Radwańska (; born 6 March 1989) is a Polish former professional tennis player and current coach. She was ranked world No. 2 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA), in July 2012. Radwańska won 20 WTA Tour sing ...
and
Maria Sharapova Maria Yuryevna Sharapova (, ; born 19 April 1987) is a Russian former professional tennis player. She was ranked as the world No. 1 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) for 21 weeks. Sharapova won 36 WTA Tour-level sin ...
) en route. After Li won the first set, she suffered serious head and ankle injuries and eventually lost in three sets. Their last meeting at the 2013 WTA Tour Championships was a lopsided affair, with Li recording a straight sets win and losing just three games in the process.


Career statistics


Grand Slam tournament finals


Singles: 4 (2 titles, 2 runner-ups)


Olympic medal matches


Singles: 1


Grand Slam performance timelines


Singles


Doubles


Personal life


Parents

Li Na was born on 26 February 1982 in downtown
Wuhan Wuhan; is the capital of Hubei, China. With a population of over eleven million, it is the most populous city in Hubei and the List of cities in China by population, eighth-most-populous city in China. It is also one of the nine National cent ...
,
Hubei Hubei is a province of China, province in Central China. It has the List of Chinese provincial-level divisions by GDP, seventh-largest economy among Chinese provinces, the second-largest within Central China, and the third-largest among inland ...
. Her grandfather Li Longli was a sports teacher at the Baoxing Street Elementary School, Hankow. Her father Li Shengpeng ( zh, labels=no, t=李盛鵬, 1957''–''1996), from Hanyang County, Hubei, briefly made it to the Hubei provincial
badminton Badminton is a racquet sport played using racket (sports equipment), racquets to hit a shuttlecock across a net (device), net. Although it may be played with larger teams, the most common forms of the game are "singles" (with one player per s ...
team but had his sports career halted when he was sent to the countryside during the
Down to the Countryside Movement The Up to the Mountains and Down to the Countryside Movement, often known simply as the Down to the Countryside Movement, was a policy instituted in the China, People's Republic of China between the mid-1950s and 1978. As a result of what he p ...
of the
Cultural Revolution The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a Social movement, sociopolitical movement in the China, People's Republic of China (PRC). It was launched by Mao Zedong in 1966 and lasted until his de ...
. Li Shengpeng was past his peak level when he returned from the countryside and worked as a sales rep in the state-owned Yangtze Metal Works Factory in Wuhan. He died from a rare cardiovascular disease when Li Na was fourteen. Li Na's maternal grandparents and her mother, all from
Xinhua County Xinhua County () is a county and the 4th most populous county-level division in the Province of Hunan, China; it is under the administration of Loudi City. Located along the middle reaches of the Zi River, it covers 3,635 square kilometers and ...
, Hunan, used to live in Port Baoqing in Wuhan, a neighborhood historically resided by the river shipping clique from Xinhua County. Her mother Li Yanping ( zh, labels=no, t=李豔萍, 1957–) worked at the Wuhan Yangtze Ferry Company. When Li Na was three years old, her mother took her to temporarily live with her maternal grandmother in Baixi, Xinhua, Hunan.


Marriage

Li and her husband, Jiang Shan, have two children. On 19 January 2015, Li announced that she and her husband were expecting their first child. She gave birth to her daughter Alisa in June 2015. Her second child, a boy, was born on 23 December 2016. She often refers to her husband as 'Dennis'. In December 2019, Li purchased a Hudson Yards apartment in
New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
. She also owns an apartment in
Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...
, Massachusetts.


See also

*
Tennis in China Tennis is a rapidly growing sport that has received much private and public support in China, and has today become firmly entrenched in the Chinese as one of the most popular. Tennis is now the third-most popular sport on television in China, be ...
*
List of female tennis players This is a list of female tennis players who meet one or more of the following criteria: * Singles: **Officially ranked among the top 25 by the Women's Tennis Association (since 1975) **Ranked among the top 10 by an expert (e.g. A. Wallis Myer ...
* List of Grand Slam women's singles champions * Tennis performance timeline comparison (women)


References


Further reading

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External links

* * * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Li, Na 1982 births Living people Asian Games bronze medalists for China Asian Games gold medalists for China Asian Games medalists in tennis Australian Open (tennis) champions Chinese autobiographers Chinese female tennis players 21st-century Chinese sportswomen French Open champions Grand Slam (tennis) champions in women's singles Huazhong University of Science and Technology alumni International Tennis Hall of Fame inductees Olympic tennis players for China Tennis players from Wuhan Tennis players at the 2000 Summer Olympics Tennis players at the 2006 Asian Games Tennis players at the 2008 Summer Olympics Tennis players at the 2010 Asian Games Tennis players at the 2012 Summer Olympics Women autobiographers Writers from Wuhan Medalists at the 2006 Asian Games Medalists at the 2010 Asian Games Summer World University Games medalists in tennis FISU World University Games gold medalists for China Medalists at the 2001 Summer Universiade