Li Na (tennis player)

Li Na
Li Na 2010 at the Porsche Grand Prix in Stuttgart
Nation:	People's Republic of China
Birthday:	February 26, 1982
Size:	172 cm
1st professional season:	1999
Resignation:	19th September 2014
Playing hand:	Right, two-handed backhand
Prize money:	$ 16,709,074
singles
Career record:	503: 188
Career title:	9 WTA , 19 ITF
Highest ranking:	2 (February 17, 2014)
Grand Slam record
Double
Career record:	121: 50
Career title:	2 WTA, 16 ITF
Highest ranking:	54 (August 28, 2006)
Grand Slam record
Mixed
Grand Slam record
Sources: official player profiles at the ATP / WTA and ITF (see web links )

Li Na at Wimbledon in 2008

Li Na ( Chinese  李娜 , Pinyin Lǐ Nà ; born February 26, 1982 in Wuhan , Hubei ) is a former Chinese tennis player . She celebrated her greatest sporting success with the two Grand Slam titles in 2011 at the French Open and in 2014 at the Australian Open .

Career

The right-hander has been a professional tennis player since 1999. In addition to her two Grand Slam successes, she also won 19 ITF and seven WTA individual titles. In doubles she has 16 ITF and two WTA titles. On June 4, 2011, she became the first Asian woman to win the French Open . Her coach was her husband Jiang Shan for many years. From August 2012 she was looked after by Carlos Rodriguez, the former coach of Justine Henin . In January 2014, she achieved her second Grand Slam triumph in Melbourne under his care.

2007 to 2010: First WTA title

At the beginning of 2007, Li failed in round two of the tournament in Gold Coast . In Sydney she reached the semi-finals, defeating Jelena Dementjewa in round two after defending five match points with 3: 6, 6: 1, 7: 5. Subsequently, she lost to Kim Clijsters with 1: 6, 6: 1 and 5: 7. At the Australian Open she reached the round of 16 after beating Dinara Safina in round three , where she lost to Martina Hingis 6: 4, 3: 6 and 0: 6.

At the tournament in Indian Wells she came to the semifinals after victories over Jelena Janković and Wera Swonarjowa . In Miami she had to admit defeat to Anna Tschakwetadze in the quarterfinals after she had triumphed over Clijsters in the previous round. Her best result of the clay court season was reaching the third round at the French Open. After Birmingham , she had to end the season early because of a rib injury.

The year 2008 began with a title win in Gold Coast, where after Sybille Bammer , Monique Adamczak , Nicole Vaidišová and Patty Schnyder she defeated Wiktoryja Asaranka 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 in the final .

In 2009, Li remained untitled. By reaching the last sixteen at the French Open , she achieved a respectable success, at the US Open she moved into the quarter-finals.

At the Australian Open she reached the semi-finals in 2010 and the third round at the French Open. In June of that year she won the first WTA title in the International category ; at the grass tournament in Birmingham, where she won her second WTA title in doubles in 2006 (alongside Jelena Janković), she defeated Maria Sharapova 7: 5, 6: 1 in the final . At Wimbledon she was able to advance to the quarter-finals, at the US Open, however, she was eliminated in the opening round.

2011 to 2013: First Grand Slam title

In January 2011, Li won the tournament in Sydney . In the final, she fought Kim Clijsters 7: 6 ³ , 6: 3. In Melbourne she reached the final of a Grand Slam tournament for the first time with a semi-final victory over world number one Caroline Wozniacki . This time she was defeated by Clijsters 6: 3, 3: 6 and 3: 6.

At the French Open , Li won her first Grand Slam title in 2011 when she defeated defending champion Francesca Schiavone 6: 4, 7: 6 ⁰ in the Paris final, moving up to fourth place in the WTA world rankings . In Wimbledon, however, she had to pack her bags after round two. In the end, she lost out against Sabine Lisicki in a thrilling three-set match after failing to use two match points. At the WTA Championships in Istanbul, she defeated Sharapova in two sets in her opening match, but after straight defeats to Asaranka and Samantha Stosur , the tournament was over for her after the preliminary round.

In 2012 she was eliminated from the Australian Open again against Kim Clijsters, this time in a close match of three sets in the round of 16. She lost the final at the clay court tournament in Rome against Sharapova 6: 4, 4: 6, 6: 7 ⁵ after several interruptions in the rain . At the French Open she got off to a good start as the defending champion, but then lost to Jaroslawa Schwedowa 6: 3, 2: 6 and 0: 6 in the round of 16 . At Wimbledon this time it was only enough for round two. In Montréal she reached a final for the second time in 2012, but lost to Petra Kvitová 5: 7, 6: 2 and 3: 6. The following week, she won the Cincinnati Premier Tournament by beating Angelique Kerber 1: 6, 6: 3 and 6: 1 in the final. At the US Open she was eliminated in round three against Laura Robson (4: 6, 7: 6, 2: 6).

In 2013 she only won a small WTA tournament in her home country, in Shenzen ; in addition, however, she was in the final of the Australian Open, in the quarter-finals of Wimbledon and for the first time in the semifinals of the US Open. At the WTA Championships she also reached the final.

2014: Second Grand Slam title, number 2 in the world and resignation

At the Australian Open in Melbourne in 2014, she reached the final for the third time after 2011 and 2013. After a competitive first set, which Li won 7: 6 (7: 3), Dominika Cibulková clearly dominated and won the second 6: 0. The almost 32-year-old at the time secured her second Grand Slam title and moved up to third place in the world rankings. On February 17th, she was number two in the world. At the French Open , she surprisingly failed in round one against Kristina Mladenovic (5: 7, 6: 3, 1: 6). She had to cancel her participation in the US Open due to a knee injury. On September 19, 2014, Li Na announced her retirement from professional tennis after several knee operations.

In 2019 she was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame .

Tournament victories

singles

No.	date	competition	category	Topping	Final opponent	Result
1	June 13, 1999	Shenzhen	ITF $ 10,000	Hard court	Chung Yang-jin	6: 2, 6: 3
2	June 20, 1999	Shenzhen	ITF $ 10,000	Hard court	Chung Yang-jin	6-0, 6-0
3	August 29, 1999	West end	ITF $ 10,000	sand	Daphne van de Zande	6: 3, 6: 1
4th	January 23, 2000	Boca Raton	ITF $ 10,000	Hard court	Sandra Cacic	6: 4, 6: 3
5	March 26, 2000	Nanjing	ITF $ 10,000	Hard court	Marie-Ève ​​Pelletier	7: 6, 6: 2
6th	April 2, 2000	Nanjing	ITF $ 10,000	Hard court	Ding Ding	6: 2, 6: 2
7th	April 16, 2000	Shenyang	ITF $ 10,000	Hard court	Sun Tiantian	6-0, 6-4
8th	April 23, 2000	Dalian	ITF $ 10,000	Hard court	Li Ling Chen	6: 4, 6: 4
9	May 14, 2000	Seoul	ITF $ 50,000	sand	Kim Eun-ha	6: 3, 7: 6
10	May 28, 2000	Ho Chi Minh City	ITF $ 25,000	Hard court	Wynne Prakusya	6: 1, 6: 2
11	July 9, 2000	Civitanova Marche	ITF $ 25,000	sand	Emmanuelle Gagliardi	6: 3, 4: 6, 7: 6
12	April 22, 2001	Ho Chi Minh City	ITF $ 25,000	Hard court	Roberta Vinci	6: 4, 7: 5
13	July 29, 2001	Guangzhou	ITF $ 25,000	Hard court	Liu Nannan	6: 1, 6: 2
14th	February 10, 2002	Midland	ITF $ 75,000	Hard court (hall)	Mashona Washington	6: 1, 6: 2
15th	May 23, 2004	Beijing	ITF $ 25,000	Hard court	Seiko Okamoto	6: 4, 6: 4
16	May 30, 2004	Tongliao	ITF $ 25,000	Hard court	Bahia Mouhtassine	6: 4, 2: 6, 7: 6
17th	June 6, 2004	Wulanhaote	ITF $ 25,000	Hard court	Liu Nannan	6-0, 6-0
18th	June 13, 2004	Beijing	ITF $ 50,000	Hard court (hall)	Suchanun Viratprasert	6: 2, 6: 4
19th	October 3, 2004	Guangzhou	WTA Tier III	Hard court	Martina Suchá	6: 3, 6: 4
20th	October 31, 2004	Shenzhen	ITF $ 50,000	Hard court	Sun Tiantian	6: 3, 4: 6, 6: 2
21st	January 5, 2008	Gold coast	WTA Tier III	Hard court	Viktoriya Azaranka	4: 6, 6: 3, 6: 4
22nd	June 13, 2010	Birmingham	WTA International	race	Maria Sharapova	7: 5, 6: 1
23	January 14, 2011	Sydney	WTA Premier	Hard court	Kim Clijsters	7: 6 3 , 6: 3
24	June 4, 2011	French Open	Grand Slam	sand	Francesca Schiavone	6: 4, 7: 6 0
25th	19th August 2012	Cincinnati	WTA Premier 5	Hard court	Angelique Kerber	1: 6, 6: 3, 6: 1
26th	5th January 2013	Shenzhen	WTA International	Hard court	Klára Zakopalová	6: 3, 1: 6, 7: 5
27	4th January 2014	Shenzhen	WTA International	Hard court	Peng Shuai	6: 4, 7: 5
28	January 25, 2014	Australian Open	Grand Slam	Hard court	Dominika Cibulková	7: 6 3 , 6: 0

Double

No.	date	competition	category	Topping	Partner	Final opponents	Result
1	June 18, 2000	Tashkent	WTA Tier IVa	Hard court	Li Ting	Iroda Tulyaganova Hanna Zaporozhanova	3: 6, 6: 2, 6: 4
2	June 18, 2006	Birmingham	WTA Tier III	race	Jelena Janković	Jill Crayba's Liezel Huber	6: 2, 6: 4

Career statistics and tournament record

singles

competition	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	total
Australian Open	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	3	1	AF	3	-	HF	F.	AF	F.	S.	1
French Open	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	3	3	-	AF	3	S.	AF	2	1	1
Wimbledon	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	VF	-	2	3	VF	2	2	VF	3	0
US Open	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	1	AF	-	AF	VF	1	1	3	HF	-	0
Tour Championships	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	RR	RR	F.	-	0
Doha	na or a. K.												HF	na or a. K.			-	-	AF	0
Dubai	na or a. K.													1	VF	2	na or a. K.			0
Indian Wells	a. K.	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	AF	HF	-	AF	2	2	VF	-	HF	0
Miami	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	2	VF	-	VF	2	2	VF	VF	F.	0
Charleston	not carried out					-	-	-	-	-	-	AF	-	other category						0
Rome	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	1	-	HF	F.	AF	VF	0
Madrid	na or a. K.													2	VF	HF	VF	1	VF	0
Berlin	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	HF	2	-	na or a. K.						0
San Diego	na or a. K.								-	-	-	-	na or a. K.							0
Cincinnati	na or a. K.													-	AF	AF	S.	HF	-	1
Montreal / Toronto	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	AF	1	-	-	-	AF	AF	F.	HF	-	0
Tokyo	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	AF	-	HF	-	-	AF	-	a. K.	0
Wuhan	not carried out																		-	0
Zurich	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	not carried out							0
Beijing	na or a. K.													AF	HF	1	HF	VF	-	0
Moscow	a. K.	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	1	-	1	other category						0
Olympic games	-	not carried out			1	not carried out			-	not carried out			HF	not carried out			1	n / A		0
Fed Cup	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	Po	-	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	0
Tournament participation	1	0	0	10	21st	8th	4th	0	10	14th	22nd	13	14th	17th	21st	18th	17th	15th	9	214
Finals reached	0	0	0	3	8th	2	1	0	7th	1	1	0	1	2	1	3	4th	4th	3	41
Title won	0	0	0	3	8th	2	1	0	6th	0	0	0	1	0	1	2	1	1	2	28
Hard court wins / defeats	0: 1	0-0	0-0	21: 6	44:10	11: 5	15: 2	0-0	51: 4	22:12	25:13	14: 6	24:12	23: 9	17:14	15:12	30:11	34: 8	21: 3	367: 128
Sand victories / defeats	0-0	0-0	0-0	5-0	12: 2	0-0	0: 1	0-0	0-0	7: 2	12: 4	6: 5	0-0	5: 4	10: 4	15: 3	11: 4	5: 4	5: 3	93:36
Turf wins / defeats	0-0	0-0	0-0	3: 1	0: 1	0: 1	0-0	0-0	0-0	0-0	6: 3	2: 1	2: 2	7: 3	9: 2	2: 2	1: 2	5: 2	2: 1	39:21
Carpet victories / defeats	0-0	0-0	0-0	0-0	0-0	0-0	0-0	0-0	0-0	0-0	0: 1	1: 1	3: 1	0-0	0-0	0-0	0-0	0-0	0-0	4: 3
Overall wins / losses	0: 1	0-0	0-0	29: 7	56:13	11: 6	15: 3	0-0	51: 4	29:14	43:21	23:13	29:15	35:16	36:20	32:17	42:17	44:14	28: 7	503: 188
World ranking points	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	N / A
Year-end position	-	-	-	363	134	303	277	-	80	57	21st	29	23	15th	11	5	7th	3	-	N / A

Explanation of symbols: S = tournament victory; F, HF, VF, AF = entry into the final / semi-finals / quarter-finals / round of 16; 1, 2, 3 = elimination in the 1st / 2nd / 3rd main round; RR = Round Robin (group stage); na = not carried out; a. K. = other category; PO (playoff) = promotion and relegation round in the Fed Cup; K1, K2, K3 = participation in continental groups I, II, III in the Fed Cup.

Note : These statistics take into account all results individually, as stated on the WTA page. Only WTA tournaments of the category Tier I (until 2008) and the WTA tournaments of the categories Premier Mandatory and Premier 5 (since 2009) are shown.

Personal

Li Na completed a journalism -Studies at the University of Science and Technology Central China with a Bachelor. She has been married to Jiang Shan since 2008, who was also her trainer until August 2012. The couple became parents to a girl in June 2015. She gave birth to her second child, a boy, on December 23, 2016.

Web links

Commons : Li Na  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• WTA profile of Li Na (English)
• ITF profile of Li Na (English)
• Fed Cup stats by Li Na (English)
• Li Na in the database of Sports-Reference (English; archived from the original )
• Profile in China Through A Lens (English)
• China's tennis miracle ( Memento from January 5, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) in: Tages-Anzeiger from August 23, 2011 archived at archive.org

Individual evidence

1. ↑ US Open: Chinese Li Na cancels the start. In: Spiegel online . July 31, 2014, accessed September 14, 2014 . 
2. ↑ Tennis-Letter from Li Na announcing her retirement from tennis (reuters.com from September 19, 2014, accessed on September 19, 2014)
3. ^ Li Na, Mary Pierce, Yevgeny Kafelnikov to be inducted into International Tennis Hall of Fame. In: tennisfame.com. January 18, 2019, accessed on July 21, 2019 . 
4. ↑ 2 Grand Slams and now also 2 children. In: spox.com. December 24, 2016, accessed December 26, 2016 . 

Note: This article places the family name before the person's first name. This is the usual order in Chinese. Li is the family name here, Na is the first name.