Li Na
Encyclopedia
Li Na is a Chinese
professional tennis
player. Li has won 5 WTA
and 19 ITF
singles titles. Li won the 2011 French Open
singles title, making her the first Asian country representative to win a Grand Slam
in singles. With her performance at the 2011 Australian Open
, she became the first player from an Asian country to appear in a Grand Slam singles final.The words "Asian" mentioned here mean "from an Asian country", rather than "born in Asia" or "of Asian descent".
, Hubei, China. Her father Li Shengpeng (李盛鹏) was a professional badminton player and later worked as a sales rep for a Wuhan based company. He died from a rare cardiovascular disease when Li Na was 14.
At age 6, Li Na started playing badminton
, following her father's footsteps. Just before she turned eight, Li made the transition from badminton to tennis when she and her parents were convinced by coach Xia Xiyao of the Wuhan youth tennis club that this would be the right career move for her. Li joined China's National Tennis Team in 1997 and turned pro in 1999.
At the end of 2002, Li left the national tennis team to study part-time at Huazhong University of Science and Technology
, 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, future husband Jiang Shan (姜山), was opposed by the national team's management, some reported that her coach Yu Liqiao (余丽桥) was too strict and demanding, while other reports claimed that her request for a personal coach did not go through.
However, Li returned to the national team in 2004. Jiang Shan married Li and became her personal coach in 2006. Li quit the national team as well as the state-run sports system in 2008 under an experimental reform policy for tennis players. This change was called "Fly Alone" (单飞) by Chinese media. As a result Li had the freedom to pick her own coaching staff and she could keep more of her winnings. Only 8 to 12 percent of her winnings go to the government as opposed to 65 percent previously.
Li also frequently enters doubles tournaments at events alongside singles, and has won two WTA doubles titles and 16 further ITF doubles events. Her early success in doubles came mostly with Li Ting (unrelated); but more recently she has made a habit of forming temporary women's doubles partnerships with players with whom she has previously enjoyed a healthy rivalry through repeated head-to-head meetings in singles tournaments, notably Liu Nan-Nan
, Nicole Pratt
, Yan Zi
, Jelena Janković
, and Peng Shuai
.
Her career has been plagued by injuries and other troubles that have prevented her from playing for lengthy periods. She suffered a two-year hiatus from competition in her early 20s, lost several months at the height of the 2005 season to an ankle injury, and lost the second half of 2007 to a rib injury.
and one at Westende
, Belgium. She also won all of her first seven ITF doubles tournaments she entered.
In 2000, she won a total of 52 singles matches on the ITF circuit, more than any other player, notching another eight tournament titles including one at $50,000 level, two at $25,000, and an unbroken run of four successive $10,000 tournament wins in March and April.
Notable individual victories in the course of the year included wins over Flavia Pennetta
, Emmanuelle Gagliardi
, Maria Elena Camerin
, Tamarine Tanasugarn
and Yayuk Basuki
.
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 event at Tashkent
. Despite winning the first set, Li lost her first WTA singles match to Anna Zaporozhanova in three sets, 6–0, 4–6, 1–6, but she captured the women's doubles title at Tashkent with Li Ting
against Zaporozhanova and Iroda Tulyaganova
.
By the end of 2000, Li had won four WTA 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 won two further $25,000 ITF singles tournaments, defeating Roberta Vinci
in the final at Ho Chi Min City, Vietnam, and Liu Nan-Nan
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 $75,000 singles tournament at Midland, USA in February, defeating Laura Granville
, Tatiana Perebiynis
, 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
in the $50,000 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 the university.
in the semifinal of the $50,000 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 $25,000 tournament to compatriot Zheng Jie
, before returning to the WTA circuit, thanks to a wildcard entry into qualifying at the Beijing
. There, she defeated Antonella Serra Zanetti
, Marta Domachowska
, and Nicole Pratt
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
, during which she held match points against Kuznetsova. The final scores were 6–3, 6–7, 6–7, and the Russian afterwards praised her Chinese opponent, stating that she had felt as though she was up against a top-5 player.
The very next week, Li battled her way through qualifying into the WTA event at Guangzhou
(a Tier IV event at the time, though since up-graded to Tier III), then beat Vera Dushevina
, Jelena Janković
, Kristina Brandi
, and Li Ting in the main draw to reach the final, where she overcame Martina Suchá
, 6–3, 6–4, to claim her first WTA Tour title. In so doing, she became the first Chinese woman to win a WTA event.
On the back of the ranking points accrued through this result, on October 4, 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 $50,000 ITF 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
, 7–6, 3–6, 2–6. 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.
She began the year in January with a second-round performance (losing to Nadia Petrova
) at Gold Coast and a semifinal showing at Hobart (beating Amy Frazier
and Marta Domachowska
, but losing to fellow Chinese player and eventual tournament champion Zheng Jie
), then reached the third round at the Australian Open
, where she defeated Laura Granville
and Shinobu Asagoe
, before losing to Maria Sharapova
, 0–6, 2–6.
In early February, she reached the quarterfinals at Hyderabad (losing to Russian Maria Kirilenko
). After qualifying for Doha with wins over Ekaterina Bychkova
and Virginia Ruano Pascual
, she was narrowly beaten 5–7, 6–3, 5–7 by Patty Schnyder
in the first round of the main draw. After a victory over Ai Sugiyama
in the first round at Dubai the following week, it was Schnyder once again who stopped her from reaching the latter stages of the event, this time 3-6, 6-7.
After taking a month off from competition, Li returned at Estoril in late April, defeating Stéphanie Cohen-Aloro
, Nicole Pratt
, Dally Randriantefy
, and Dinara Safina
, whom she vanquished, 6–1, 6–1, to reach her second WTA Tour final, only to be denied the title by Czech qualifier Lucie Šafářová
, who prevailed in a close three-set match, 7–6, 4–6, 3–6.
At Rabat in May, Li reached the semifinal stage, but further success proved ultimately 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 world ranking of 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
of Russia. The following week, however, at the Canadian Open, she once more beat Jelena Janković
, and also defeated María Vento-Kabchi
, before suffering her second loss of the year to Nadia Petrova
at the quarterfinal stage.
It was Lindsay Davenport
who proved her undoing in her next two tournaments, beating her 4-6, 4-6, in the first round of the US Open, and 2-6, 2-6, 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, in addition to recording victories over Nuria Llagostera Vives
and Alona Bondarenko.
The following week, another highly ranked American player, Jill Craybas
, narrowly defeated Li Na in a close three-set first-round match at Beijing.
On September 26, Li Na commenced her defence 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 $50,000 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.
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 grass-court season for the first time at the DFS Classic tournament at Birmingham in June, she managed another third-round finish with wins over Mashona Washington
and grass-court specialist Eleni Daniilidou
, 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 in the first round of the Ondina Open at Hertogenbosch the following week curtailed her final competitive preparations for her debut appearance at Wimbledon
. 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
, she reached the fourth round with comfortable straight-sets wins over respected grass-court players Virginie Razzano
and recent Birmingham
semifinalist Meilen Tu
, followed by victory against 10th seeded Svetlana Kuznetsova
, 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 she was beaten by Maria Sharapova
, 4-6, 2-6. She then reached the quarterfinals at the China Open, where she was beaten by Svetlana Kuznetsova
, and in Guangzhou.
, Australia, where she reached the second round. The next week, she competed in Sydney. She defeated Francesca Schiavone
in the first round, Elena Dementieva
in the second, saving five match points, and Katarina Srebotnik
in the quarterfinal. Then, she made it to the semifinals, losing a tough match to Kim Clijsters
, 6-1, 1-6, 5-7. However, she rose to a career high of no.16 afterwards.
Li Na followed her strong showing at the Medibank tournament with an equally strong showing at the 2007 Australian Open
, where she advanced to the fourth round. Seeded 19th, Li dispatched Elena Bovina
and Lourdes Domínguez Lino
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 handedly beat Safina, 6–2, 6–2, to advance to the fourth round to play Swiss star, no. 6 Martina Hingis
. Due to a rain delay and the fact that Hingis played on Rod Laver Arena
, 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, 6-4, 3-6, 0-6, committing 69 unforced errors. Despite the loss, the tournament was a success for Na, 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
in Tokyo, Japan, Li advanced to the second round, defeating Lilia Osterloh
, 6–3, 6–2, before losing to Samantha Stosur
, 2-6, 4-6, converting 0 of 11 break points.
At the important Pacific Life Open in Indian Wells, California, Li made a strong showing, advancing to the semifinals. She lost to Daniela Hantuchová
in the semifinal, 5-7,6-4, 1-6. She continued her good form at the Miami Masters
, losing just three games in her first two matches against Tamira Paszek
and Katarina Srebotnik
, before stunning fourth-seeded Kim Clijsters
, 4–6, 6–4, 6–2. She then lost in the quarterfinals to Anna Chakvetadze
, 6-4, 5-7, 2-6.
She then moved onto the green clay of Amelia Island
, where she suffered a shock second-round exit after receiving a first round bye to former top-20 player Karolina Šprem
in straight sets, 3-6, 3-6. At the Family Circle Cup
held in Charleston, South Carolina
, she fell in the third round to Anabel Medina Garrigues
, 4-6, 5-7.
After losing in a grass tune-up event in Birmingham, Li has pulled out of every tournament she was to play in the summer, including Wimbledon and the US Open, citing a rib injury.
Li Na 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 2008 Mondial Australian Women's Hardcourts
in Gold Coast
, Australia. In the first round, she narrowly defeated seventh seed Sybille Bammer
, 6–4, 4–6, 6–4. After a comfortable second round victory over wildcard Monique Adamczak
, she was drawn to meet the top seed Nicole Vaidišová
in the quarterfinals. Li won their encounter in straight sets, 6–3, 6–3, advancing to the semifinals, where she edged past Patty Schnyder
, 3–6, 6–3, 7–5.
In the final, she narrowly prevailed against Victoria Azarenka
, 4–6, 6–3, 6–4, to score her first singles title since Guangzhou in 2004 and the second WTA singles title in her overall career.
Despite rising back up to world no. 24 following this victory, she then withdrew from the 2008 Medibank International in Sydney, 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
in straight sets in round two. A revitalised Marta Domachowska
remained between her and the defence of her ranking points, and although Li Na won the first set convincingly, 6–2, 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 straight-sets wins over Russian veteran Elena Likhovtseva
, 6–1, 6–1, Slovak world no. 45 Dominika Cibulková
, 6–4, 6–4 and on-form Swedish world no. 66 Sofia Arvidsson
, 7–5, 6–4. However, she came unstuck in the semifinals against world no. 47 Karin Knapp
, despite having taken an early lead with a break of service in the first set, ultimately ceding the match to her Italian opponent, 4–6, 6–7. This tournament brought her back up within the top 30 at world no. 29.
The next week in the Tier I 2008 Qatar Total Open
, Li met Likhovtseva again in the first round, and this time, after taking the first set comfortably, was challenged to a much tougher battle, but eventually won, 6–1, 0–6, 6–4. In round 2, she scored her second straight-sets victory in four career head-to-heads against Russian world no. 6 Anna Chakvetadze
(whom she had last beaten at the French Open in 2005), saving a set point in the first set tie-break, before recovering to win, 7–6, 6–4. In the third round, she enjoyed a more comfortable victory over Israeli world no. 17 Shahar Pe'er
, recovering from a 1–3 deficit in the second set to win, 6–1, 6–3.
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, 6–3, 6–4, 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 6–3, 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 in Eastbourne, winning one round before losing to Nadia Petrova
. She then contested Wimbledon, defeating Anastasia Rodionova, 3–6, 6–0, 6–1, before losing 2-6, 4-6 to Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova
.
At the Beijing Olympics, following early-round victories against world no. 3 Svetlana Kuznetsova
, Ayumi Morita
, and Kaia Kanepi
, she went on to defeat one of the favourites, Venus Williams
, in the quarterfinals. Li was trailing 1–4 in the first set, but then managed to strengthen her game to win in straight sets. Li lost her semifinal match to sixth seed Dinara Safina
, 6-7, 5-7, 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 Porsche Grand Prix
, the unseeded Li defeated no. 1 ranked Serena Williams
in the second-round, 0–6, 6–1, 6–4. Li thus became only the second Chinese player to defeat a world no. 1 player, following Zheng Jie
's victory over Ana Ivanović
at Wimbledon
in 2008.
, where she was defending champion (as she won the title at Gold Coast in 2008), and the Australian Open because of a right-knee injury. She made her comeback at the Paris Open
. In the first round, she beat Ágnes Szávay
, 7–6, 6–2. In the second round, she lost to second-seeded Jelena Janković
, 0-6, 6-3, 2-6.
In the first round of the Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships
, Li lost to Russian Elena Vesnina
, 6-1, 4-6, 4-6.
Unseeded at the Monterrey Open
, she defeated world no. 10 and top seed Agnieszka Radwańska
in a first round match that lasted over two hours, 7–6, 4–6, 6–0. In the second round, she beat Petra Cetkovská
, 6–3, 6–4. She advanced to the semifinals after defeating Lucie Šafářová
, 6–3, 7–6. Li then moved into her fifth career tour final, after beating sixth-seeded Iveta Benešová
, 6–3, 6–3. However, Li lost to second-seeded Marion Bartoli
in the final in straight sets.
Li then 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
, 4–6, 4–6.
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
to reach the third round, where she caused a big upset by defeating the previous week's Indian Wells champion, 6th-seeded Vera Zvonareva
in three sets, 6–4, 3–6, 6–2. 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
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, 6–4, 6–7, 2–6. Because of her strong performance, her ranking went up to world no. 29 from world no. 40.
Her next event was the second Grand Slam of the year, the French Open in Paris. As the 25th seed, she won her first round 6–4, 6–2 against Polish Marta Domachowska
. She then defeated Timea Bacsinszky
and Olga Govortsova
. She then lost to unseeded, former world no. 1 Maria Sharapova
in the fourth round, 4–6, 6–0, 4–6. After this impressive result, she jumped six rankings up to no. 20.
She started her grass-court season as the fourth seed at the AEGON Classic
in Birmingham
. She advanced to the final with a 6–4, 6–4 win over Maria Sharapova
in the semifinals. However, Na was defeated by Magdaléna Rybáriková
, 0–6, 6–7, in the final.
Na was seeded 19th at the 2009 Wimbledon Championships
. She defeated Galina Voskoboeva
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 2009 LA Women's Tennis Championships p/b Herbalife
, she withdrew due to injury during her match with Urszula Radwańska
of Poland.
Seeded 18th at the 2009 US Open
, she reached her first US Open quarterfinals, where she lost to Kim Clijsters
. En route to the quarterfinals, she defeated Ioana Raluca Olaru
, Michelle Larcher de Brito
, Maria Kirilenko
, and Francesca Schiavone
all in straight sets.
Seeded 15th at the Toray Pan Pacific Open
, Li Na won her opening match against Alizé Cornet
, 6–4, 6–0. She then defeated Vera Dushevina
, 7–5, 6–0, before defeating Kateryna Bondarenko
, 2–6, 7–5, 6–3. In the quarterfinal, she defeated Victoria Azarenka
in three sets, 7–6, 4–6, 7–6, though she failed to serve for the match twice in the last set. Li lost in the semifinals to Jelena Janković
, 4-6, 3-6.
Li finished the year at world no. 15, her career-high year-end ranking.
in Auckland
, where she was seeded second. She was defeated by Kaia Kanepi
in the first round, 1-6, 3-6. In the Medibank International, she defeated fourth seed Caroline Wozniacki
, 2–6, 6–3, 6–2. She lost to Flavia Pennetta
in the second round, 2–6, 6–7.
Li was seeded 16th at the 2010 Australian Open
. She defeated world no. 4 Caroline Wozniacki
in the fourth round, 6–4, 6–3, and then came from a set and 3–5 down to defeat world no. 6 Venus Williams
, 2–6, 7–6, 7–5, in her first Australian Open quarterfinal, and only her third Grand Slam
quarterfinal. In the semifinals, she lost to Serena Williams
, 6-7, 6-7. As a result of this performance, Li was the first Chinese woman ever to be ranked in the top 10 of women's professional tennis.
At the Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships, Li, the eighth seed, defeated María José Martínez Sánchez
, 7–6, 2–6, 6–4, in the second round. She then came from a 6–3 5–2 deficit to defeat Marion Bartoli
in the third round, 3–6, 7–5, 6–0. Li retired in her quarterfinals match against Shahar Pe'er
. Li was trailing 5–7, 0–3 when she retired.
Li continued her season at the inaugural Malaysian Open
. As second seed, she fell to Tatjana Malek
in the first round. As seventh seed at the 2010 BNP Paribas Open
, Li fell to Elena Baltacha
in the second round, 6–7, 6–2, 6–7. Li was eighth seed at the 2010 Sony Ericsson Open
, but fell to Timea Bacsinszky
in the second round.
At the 2010 Porsche Tennis Grand Prix
, Li defeated defending champion Svetlana Kuznetsova
in the second round, before falling to eventual runner-up Sam Stosur, 3-6, 3-6, in the quarterfinals. Li was 11th seed at the 2010 French Open
. She fell to eventual champion and no. 17 Francesca Schiavone
in the third round.
Li was seeded first at the 2010 AEGON Classic
. She defeated fourth seed Aravane Rezaï
in the semifinals, and second seed 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 the 2010 AEGON International
, Li retired with a knee injury when she led Elena Baltacha
. 7-6, in the first round.
Li was seeded ninth at Wimbledon
. 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
, 5-7, 3-6. By going into the last eight, Li once again returned to the top 10 in the WTA rankings. At the 2010 US Open
, she started off as the eighth seed, but suffered an upset to Kateryna Bondarenko
, 6-2, 4-6, 2-6.
At the end of the year, Li's coach Thomas Hogstead chose to leave her in order to coach Maria Sharapova
.
as eighth seed, making fast work of Australian wildcard Anastasia Rodionova, 6–1, 6–2, and winning a tough three-set match against Virginie Razzano
, 6–4, 1–6, 6–4, in the first two rounds. In the quarterfinals she met two-time Grand Slam winner Svetlana Kuznetsova
and came through with a 3–6, 7–6, 6–0 win. She defeated surprise qualifier Bojana Jovanovski
in the semifinals, 7–6, 6–3, 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, 7–6, 6–3.
Li was ninth seed at the 2011 Australian Open
, where she reached her first Grand Slam singles final. On her way there, she ousted the eighth seed Victoria Azarenka
in straight sets, 6–3, 6–3. She then defeated world no. 1 Caroline Wozniacki
in the semifinals to reach her first Grand Slam final, after saving a match point in the second set, 3–6, 7–5, 6–3. She became the first Chinese player to reach a Grand Slam singles final, facing no. 3 seed Kim Clijsters
(whom she had defeated at the Medibank International). Although Li claimed the first set, Clijsters was able to rally back and claim the championship, winning 3–6, 6–3, 6–3. Despite the loss, Li's ranking rose to a career high of world no. 7.
Despite a good early start to the season, Li then had a five-match losing streak. She lost in the first round of 2011 Dubai Tennis Championships
and 2011 Qatar Ladies Open
. After a receiving bye in the first round, she lost in the second round of the 2011 BNP Paribas Open
. Despite this, after Indian Wells she reached a career-high ranking of world no. 6 due, to Jelena Janković
's failures to defend her points.
Li's losing streak then continued, when she was upset in the 2011 Sony Ericsson Open
by Swede Johanna Larsson, 5–7, 7–6, 6–7. With this loss, and Andy Murray's loss at Miami, both Australian Open
finalists had yet to win a match since the first Grand Slam. Despite Li's successive losses, her no. 6 ranking was ensured due to Samantha Stosur
's inability to defend her clay-season points. After a week, she fell back to no. 7. Li then broke her losing streak by winning her first-round match against Anastasija Sevastova
in Stuttgart, 6–2, 6–3. However, she subsequently lost to Sabine Lisicki
in the second round, 4–6, 5–7. Even though she was not able to defend all her Stuttgart ranking points, she rose back to no. 6, with Samantha Stosur
's inability to defend her own Stuttgart points. However, with her disappointing results, Li Na sacked her husband as coach and hired the Dane Michael Mortensen
.
She entered the 2011 Mutua Madrid Open
as sixth seed. In the first two rounds, she defeated María José Martínez Sánchez
, 6–4, 7–6, and Iveta Benešová
, 6–1, 6–4. In the third round, she defeated Roberta Vinci
, 2–6, 6–2, 6–1, coming back from a set deficit. She defeated Bethanie Mattek-Sands, 6–4, 3–6, 6–4, coming back from 3–4 and one break down in the deciding set. This victory marked her the first semifinals appearance in Madrid, where she eventually lost to Petra Kvitová
, 3–6, 1–6.
Li's resurgence continued in 2011 Internazionali BNL d'Italia
. Seeded fourth, she received a bye in the first round. She won her opening match against Lourdes Domínguez Lino
, 6–4, 6–2. She defeated Jarmila Gajdošová
, 6–2, 6–1, and Gréta Arn
, 6–3, 6–1, in the next two rounds en route to back-to-back semifinals on clay court. However, she lost to Samantha Stosur
, 7–6, 6–0.
Li won her first Grand Slam
title and become the first Grand Slam singles champion born in an Asian country at the 2011 French Open
. Seeded sixth, she defeated Barbora Záhlavová-Strýcová, Silvia Soler Espinosa
, Sorana Cîrstea
, ninth seed Petra Kvitová
, fourth seed Victoria Azarenka
, seventh seed Maria Sharapova
, and fifth seed and defending champion Francesca Schiavone
in the final.
After the match, Li Na was praised by the Chinese media, and her popularity throughout China was expected to grow significantly in the following months, as she became the first Chinese singles player ever to win a tennis Grandslam title. Following the French Open, Li reached a career high ranking of World No. 4.
As the second seed at the 2011 AEGON International
, Li fell in the second round to Daniela Hantuchová
.
Due to the withdrawal of Kim Clijsters
, Li was the third seed at Wimbledon
. She beat Alla Kudryavtseva
in the first round. She lost in the second round to eventual semifinalist Sabine Lisicki
of Germany, 6-3, 4-6, 6-8, even though she had two match points at 5–3 and served for the match twice at 5–4 and 6–5.
At the 2011 US Open
in August, Li lost to 53rd ranked Simona Halep
of Romania in the first round, 2–6, 5–7. In September, Li parted ways with coach Mortensen.
At the China Open, Li fell to Romanian player Monica Niculescu
in straight sets, 4-6, 0-6. 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
. for the first time.
Li was placed in the White Group at the 2011 WTA Tour Championships
in Istanbul, Turkey with Maria Sharapova
, Victoria Azarenka
and Samantha Stosur
. She beat Sharapova in her opening match 7-6, 6-4, but lost the other two matches, failing to make the semifinals.
Li Na lost two awards in final round for "Annual Breakthrough Award" to Blake Griffin and "Annual Award for best female tennis players" to Serena Williams conducted and honoured by ESPY Sports Award.
Mainland China
Mainland China, the Chinese mainland or simply the mainland, is a geopolitical term that refers to the area under the jurisdiction of the People's Republic of China . According to the Taipei-based Mainland Affairs Council, the term excludes the PRC Special Administrative Regions of Hong Kong and...
professional tennis
Tennis
Tennis is a sport usually played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all...
player. Li has won 5 WTA
Women's Tennis Association
The Women's Tennis Association , founded in 1973 by Billie Jean King, is the principal organizing body of Women's Professional Tennis. It governs the WTA Tour which is the worldwide professional tennis tour for women. Its counterpart organization in the men's professional game is the Association of...
and 19 ITF
International Tennis Federation
The International Tennis Federation is the governing body of world tennis, made up of 205 national tennis associations.It was established as the International Lawn Tennis Federation by 12 national associations meeting at a conference in Paris, France on 1 March 1913...
singles titles. Li won the 2011 French Open
2011 French Open
The 2011 French Open was a tennis tournament played on outdoor clay courts. It was the 110th edition of the French Open, and the second Grand Slam event of the year...
singles title, making her the first Asian country representative to win a Grand Slam
Grand Slam (tennis)
The four Major tennis tournaments, also called the Slams, are the most important tennis events of the year in terms of world tour ranking points, tradition, prize-money awarded, strength and size of player field, and public attention. They are the Australian Open, the French Open, Wimbledon, and...
in singles. With her performance at the 2011 Australian Open
2011 Australian Open
The 2011 Australian Open was a tennis tournament featuring six different competitions, and part of the 2011 ATP World Tour, the 2011 WTA Tour, ITF Junior Tour and the NEC Tour, as tournaments for professional, junior and wheelchair players were held...
, she became the first player from an Asian country to appear in a Grand Slam singles final.The words "Asian" mentioned here mean "from an Asian country", rather than "born in Asia" or "of Asian descent".
Off the court
Li Na was born on February 26, 1982, in WuhanWuhan
Wuhan is the capital of Hubei province, People's Republic of China, and is the most populous city in Central China. It lies at the east of the Jianghan Plain, and the intersection of the middle reaches of the Yangtze and Han rivers...
, Hubei, China. Her father Li Shengpeng (李盛鹏) was a professional badminton player and later worked as a sales rep for a Wuhan based company. He died from a rare cardiovascular disease when Li Na was 14.
At age 6, Li Na started playing badminton
Badminton
Badminton is a racquet sport played by either two opposing players or two opposing pairs , who take positions on opposite halves of a rectangular court that is divided by a net. Players score points by striking a shuttlecock with their racquet so that it passes over the net and lands in their...
, following her father's footsteps. Just before she turned eight, Li made the transition from badminton to tennis when she and her parents were convinced by coach Xia Xiyao of the Wuhan youth tennis club that this would be the right career move for her. Li joined China's National Tennis Team in 1997 and turned pro in 1999.
At the end of 2002, Li left the national tennis team to study part-time at Huazhong University of Science and Technology
Huazhong University of Science and Technology
The Huazhong University of Science and Technology is a public, coeducational research university located in Wuhan, Hubei province, China. As a national key university, HUST is directly affiliated to the Ministry of Education of China. HUST has been referred as the flagship of China's higher...
, 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, future husband Jiang Shan (姜山), was opposed by the national team's management, some reported that her coach Yu Liqiao (余丽桥) was too strict and demanding, while other reports claimed that her request for a personal coach did not go through.
However, Li returned to the national team in 2004. Jiang Shan married Li and became her personal coach in 2006. Li quit the national team as well as the state-run sports system in 2008 under an experimental reform policy for tennis players. This change was called "Fly Alone" (单飞) by Chinese media. As a result Li had the freedom to pick her own coaching staff and she could keep more of her winnings. Only 8 to 12 percent of her winnings go to the government as opposed to 65 percent previously.
Career
Between 1999 and 2004, Li won 20 women's singles titles: 19 ITF events and one—the first ever won by a Chinese woman—on the WTA Tour. In January 2008, she won her second WTA Tour title after a drought of over three and a quarter years.Li also frequently enters doubles tournaments at events alongside singles, and has won two WTA doubles titles and 16 further ITF doubles events. Her early success in doubles came mostly with Li Ting (unrelated); but more recently she has made a habit of forming temporary women's doubles partnerships with players with whom she has previously enjoyed a healthy rivalry through repeated head-to-head meetings in singles tournaments, notably Liu Nan-Nan
Liu Nan-Nan
-Career:Starting in 2001, Nannan has enjoyed considerable success on the ITF circuit, and occasionally qualified for WTA Tour events. Though her success at the WTA level of the game has so far fallen short of the stellar heights achieved by some of her Chinese contemporaries such as Peng Shuai, Li...
, Nicole Pratt
Nicole Pratt
Nicole Pratt is a retired professional female tennis player from Australia.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 player. She attended school in Calen and received a tennis scholarship to the Australian...
, Yan Zi
Yan Zi
Yan Zi is a Chinese women's tennis player.Yan Zi may also refer to:* Stefanie Sun , also known as Sun Yan Zi, Singaporean singer** Yan Zi , Sun's self-titled album...
, Jelena Janković
Jelena Janković
Jelena Janković is a former world no. 1 professional tennis player from Serbia. She reached the final of the 2008 US Open and won the 2007 Wimbledon Mixed Doubles title. Janković is ranked world no...
, and Peng Shuai
Peng Shuai
Peng Shuai is a Chinese professional female tennis player. She won a gold medal at the 2010 Asian Games, defeating Akgul Amanmuradova in the final...
.
Her career has been plagued by injuries and other troubles that have prevented her from playing for lengthy periods. She suffered a two-year hiatus from competition in her early 20s, lost several months at the height of the 2005 season to an ankle injury, and lost the second half of 2007 to a rib injury.
1999–2002
Li turned professional in 1999, and that year won three of the very first four singles tournaments she entered on the ITF Circuit, two at ShenzhenShenzhen
Shenzhen is a major city in the south of Southern China's Guangdong Province, situated immediately north of Hong Kong. The area became China's first—and one of the most successful—Special Economic Zones...
and one at Westende
Westende
Westende is a town in Flanders, one of the three regions of Belgium, and in the Flemish province of West-Flanders. It lies on the Belgian coast, also called Flemish coast. It used to be the far west of the island Testerep which lay along the Belgian coast....
, Belgium. She also won all of her first seven ITF doubles tournaments she entered.
In 2000, she won a total of 52 singles matches on the ITF circuit, more than any other player, notching another eight tournament titles including one at $50,000 level, two at $25,000, and an unbroken run of four successive $10,000 tournament wins in March and April.
Notable individual victories in the course of the year included wins over Flavia Pennetta
Flavia Pennetta
Flavia Pennetta is an Italian professional tennis player. She became Italy's first top 10 female singles player on 17 August 2009 and also the first ever Italian Tennis player to be ranked No.1 in Doubles on 28 February 2011. As of 10 October 2011, Pennetta is ranked World No. 18 in singles and...
, Emmanuelle Gagliardi
Emmanuelle Gagliardi
Emmanuelle Gagliardi is a professional Swiss tennis player.Her coach is Marco Tarelli and she prefers to play on hardcourts.As of 2 March 2008, Gagliardi is still searching for her first WTA Tour singles title....
, Maria Elena Camerin
Maria Elena Camerin
Maria Elena Camerin is a professional female tennis player from Italy.On 11 October 2004, Camerin reached her career-high singles ranking: World No...
, Tamarine Tanasugarn
Tamarine Tanasugarn
Tamarine Tanasugarn is a professional Thai tennis player. She was born in Los Angeles, United States, and turned professional in 1994. She has been in the top 20 in both singles and doubles....
and Yayuk Basuki
Yayuk Basuki
Yayuk Basuki is a professional tennis player from Indonesia. She is the highest-ever ranked tennis player from Indonesia, having reached #19 in the Women's Tennis Association singles 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 event at Tashkent
Tashkent
Tashkent is the capital of Uzbekistan and of the Tashkent Province. The officially registered population of the city in 2008 was about 2.2 million. Unofficial sources estimate the actual population may be as much as 4.45 million.-Early Islamic History:...
. Despite winning the first set, Li lost her first WTA singles match to Anna Zaporozhanova in three sets, 6–0, 4–6, 1–6, but she captured the women's doubles title at Tashkent with Li Ting
Li Ting
Li Ting may refer to:* Li Ting * Li Ting * Li Ting * Li Ting...
against Zaporozhanova and Iroda Tulyaganova
Iroda Tulyaganova
Iroda Tulyaganova is a professional tennis player who comes from Uzbekistan.She has been ranked as high as No.16 on the WTA Tour and has won three WTA singles titles in her career...
.
By the end of 2000, Li had won four WTA 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 Ting
Li Ting may refer to:* Li Ting * Li Ting * Li Ting * Li Ting...
.
Li was mostly absent from the tour in 2001. She won two further $25,000 ITF singles tournaments, defeating Roberta Vinci
Roberta Vinci
Roberta Vinci is an Italian tennis player. As of 29 August 2011, Vinci is ranked World No. 20, on the WTA Tour Rankings. Vinci has won thirteen WTA Tour titles, six in singles and seven in doubles....
in the final at Ho Chi Min City, Vietnam, and Liu Nan-Nan
Liu Nan-Nan
-Career:Starting in 2001, Nannan has enjoyed considerable success on the ITF circuit, and occasionally qualified for WTA Tour events. Though her success at the WTA level of the game has so far fallen short of the stellar heights achieved by some of her Chinese contemporaries such as Peng Shuai, Li...
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 $75,000 singles tournament at Midland, USA in February, defeating Laura Granville
Laura Granville
Laura Granville is an American professional tennis player. During the two years she spent at Stanford University, she set the record for most consecutive singles victories with 58. As of November 17, 2008, she is ranked World No...
, Tatiana Perebiynis
Tatiana Perebiynis
Tetyana Yurevna Perebiynis , born on December 15, 1982 is a Top 100 female professional tennis player born in Kharkiv, Ukraine, where she lives. She is an only child. She reached the Wimbledon junior girls' singles final in 2000, and won the Wimbledon juniors doubles final that year...
, and Mashona Washington
Mashona Washington
Mashona Washington is a professional tennis player from the United States.Mashona's career high singles ranking is no. 50 which she reached on November 8, 2004, and her career high doubles ranking is no...
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
Zuzana Ondrášková is a professional female tennis player from the Czech Republic. On 9 February 2004 she reached her career-high singles ranking of World No...
in the $50,000 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 the university.
2004
In May 2004, she returned to the circuit unranked, and won 26 successive matches to notch three further $25,000 tournament wins and another $50,000 title, increasing her career singles title count to 18, only to have her winning streak finally snapped by Evgenia LinetskayaEvgenia Linetskaya
Evgenia Simonovna Linetskaya is a Russian-born Israeli 5' 9" right-handed professional tennis player.Through May 2009, her career high in singles was # 35 on July 4, 2005.-Early success:...
in the semifinal of the $50,000 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 $25,000 tournament to compatriot Zheng Jie
Zheng Jie
Zheng Jie is a Chinese professional tennis player. Her career high ranking is World No. 15 which she achieved on May 18, 2009. As of August 15, 2011, Zheng is ranked World No. 65 in singles and World No. 20 in doubles....
, before returning to the WTA circuit, thanks to a wildcard entry into qualifying at the Beijing
China Open (tennis)
The China Open is an annual professional tennis tournament held in Beijing, China. The men's singles and doubles events were first held in 1993, the year in which the Qatar Open and Dubai Tennis Championships were also introduced to the men's tour, as the ATP opened a series of new tournaments in...
. There, she defeated Antonella Serra Zanetti
Antonella Serra Zanetti
Antonella Serra Zanetti is a professional female tennis player from Italy.On January 30, 2006, Serra Zanetti achieved her career-high singles ranking: World No. 60.-Doubles :...
, Marta Domachowska
Marta Domachowska
Marta Domachowska is a Polish professional tennis player. She began playing at age 7. She reached the semi finals of Australian Open Junior Championships in 2003. Her racquet brand is Wilson. She speaks four languages: Polish, English, Spanish and Russian. Other than tennis, she enjoys sports such...
, and Nicole Pratt
Nicole Pratt
Nicole Pratt is a retired professional female tennis player from Australia.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 player. She attended school in Calen and received a tennis scholarship to the Australian...
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 Kuznetsova
Svetlana Aleksandrovna Kuznetsova ; born June 27, 1985) is a Russian professional tennis player and as of October 10, 2011 ranked No. 21 in the WTA singles and No. 90 in the doubles ranking. Kuznetsova has appeared in four singles Grand Slam finals, winning two, and has also appeared in six doubles...
, during which she held match points against Kuznetsova. The final scores were 6–3, 6–7, 6–7, and the Russian afterwards praised her Chinese opponent, stating that she had felt as though she was up against a top-5 player.
The very next week, Li battled her way through qualifying into the WTA event at Guangzhou
Guangzhou International Women's Open
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 as the first ever Chinese singles title winner. -Singles:-Doubles:-External links:* *...
(a Tier IV event at the time, though since up-graded to Tier III), then beat Vera Dushevina
Vera Dushevina
Vera Yevgenyevna Dushevina is a Russian professional female tennis player. She was born in Moscow but now resides in Khimki, Russia. In 2006, she privately amended the presentation of her surname so as to be more English language friendly, adopting Dushevina in place of Douchevina which is a...
, Jelena Janković
Jelena Janković
Jelena Janković is a former world no. 1 professional tennis player from Serbia. She reached the final of the 2008 US Open and won the 2007 Wimbledon Mixed Doubles title. Janković is ranked world no...
, Kristina Brandi
Kristina Brandi
Kristina Brandi is a Puerto Rican tennis player.-Early years:Brandi was born and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico, where she became interested in the sport of tennis at an early age. She made her professional debut in 1995 when she was 17 years old.-USTA Circuit:In 2003, Brandi won the most titles...
, and Li Ting in the main draw to reach the final, where she overcame Martina Suchá
Martina Suchá
Martina Suchá is a retired female tennis player from Slovakia.With a height of 1.70 m and a weight of 57 kg , she is right-handed, and plays with a two-handed backhand....
, 6–3, 6–4, to claim her first WTA Tour title. In so doing, she became the first Chinese woman to win a WTA event.
On the back of the ranking points accrued through this result, on October 4, 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 $50,000 ITF 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
Yan Zi
Yan Zi is a Chinese women's tennis player.Yan Zi may also refer to:* Stefanie Sun , also known as Sun Yan Zi, Singaporean singer** Yan Zi , Sun's self-titled album...
, 7–6, 3–6, 2–6. 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
2005 saw Li finally abandoning the ITF circuit to focus solely on WTA-level events.She began the year in January with a second-round performance (losing to Nadia Petrova
Nadia Petrova
Nadezhda Viktorovna Petrova is a Russian professional tennis player.Overall, she has won 28 WTA Titles, ten in singles and eighteen in doubles. In singles, Petrova has reached a career high ranking of World No. 3 in May 2006 and has reached the semi-finals of the French Open in 2003 and 2005...
) at Gold Coast and a semifinal showing at Hobart (beating Amy Frazier
Amy Frazier
Amy Frazier is a now inactive professional female tennis player from the United States.She debuted in 1987 and was active player until the 2006 US Open in which she made her 20th consecutive appearance...
and Marta Domachowska
Marta Domachowska
Marta Domachowska is a Polish professional tennis player. She began playing at age 7. She reached the semi finals of Australian Open Junior Championships in 2003. Her racquet brand is Wilson. She speaks four languages: Polish, English, Spanish and Russian. Other than tennis, she enjoys sports such...
, but losing to fellow Chinese player and eventual tournament champion Zheng Jie
Zheng Jie
Zheng Jie is a Chinese professional tennis player. Her career high ranking is World No. 15 which she achieved on May 18, 2009. As of August 15, 2011, Zheng is ranked World No. 65 in singles and World No. 20 in doubles....
), then reached the third round at the Australian Open
Australian Open
The Australian Open is the only Grand Slam tennis tournament held in the southern hemisphere. The tournament was held for the first time in 1905 and was last contested on grass in 1987. Since 1972 the Australian Open has been held in Melbourne, Victoria. In 1988, the tournament became a hard court...
, where she defeated Laura Granville
Laura Granville
Laura Granville is an American professional tennis player. During the two years she spent at Stanford University, she set the record for most consecutive singles victories with 58. As of November 17, 2008, she is ranked World No...
and Shinobu Asagoe
Shinobu Asagoe
Shinobu Asagoe is a Japanese former professional 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 . In the US Open that year, she defeated Patty Schnyder, a top 50 player...
, before losing to Maria Sharapova
Maria Sharapova
Maria Yuryevna Sharapova ,. is a Russian professional tennis player and a former world no. 1. A US resident since 1994, Sharapova has won 24 WTA singles titles, including three Grand Slam singles titles at the 2004 Wimbledon, 2006 US Open and 2008 Australian Open...
, 0–6, 2–6.
In early February, she reached the quarterfinals at Hyderabad (losing to Russian Maria Kirilenko
Maria Kirilenko
Maria Yuryevna Kirilenko is a Russian professional tennis player. Kirilenko won her first WTA Tour title in 2005, defeating Anna-Lena Grönefeld in the China Open. Kirilenko reached no. 18, her career-high singles ranking, on the WTA tour in July 2008. She won the junior event at the 2002 Canadian...
). After qualifying for Doha with wins over Ekaterina Bychkova
Ekaterina Bychkova
Ekaterina Andreevna Bychkova is a professional tennis player. She is most famous for defeating defending champion Svetlana Kuznetsova in the first round of the 2005 US Open. She defeated her by a score of 6–3, 6–2. It was the first time a defending US Open Champion had lost in the first round...
and Virginia Ruano Pascual
Virginia Ruano Pascual
Virginia Ruano Pascual is a Spanish professional female tennis player. She was born in Madrid, Spain.She has won three career singles titles but she has been more successful in doubles where she has won 43 titles, including 10 Grand Slam titles Between 2002...
, she was narrowly beaten 5–7, 6–3, 5–7 by Patty Schnyder
Patty Schnyder
Patty Schnyder is a retired Swiss professional tennis player. She played on the WTA tour from 1993 to 2011 and is a former World No. 7. She defeated several World No...
in the first round of the main draw. After a victory over Ai Sugiyama
Ai Sugiyama
is a retired Japanese professional tennis player. She reached No. 1 in women's doubles on the WTA Tour. Her career-high singles ranking was No. 8, achieved on February 9, 2004. She turned professional in 1992...
in the first round at Dubai the following week, it was Schnyder once again who stopped her from reaching the latter stages of the event, this time 3-6, 6-7.
After taking a month off from competition, Li returned at Estoril in late April, defeating Stéphanie Cohen-Aloro
Stéphanie Cohen-Aloro
Stéphanie Cohen-Aloro is a former French female professional tennis player.Her highest singles ranking was #61, achieved on October 5, 2003...
, Nicole Pratt
Nicole Pratt
Nicole Pratt is a retired professional female tennis player from Australia.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 player. She attended school in Calen and received a tennis scholarship to the Australian...
, Dally Randriantefy
Dally Randriantefy
Dally Randriantefy is a former professional female tennis player.Her highest rank on the WTA tour is No.44 and her best results have been a semi-final appearance at the WTA Strasbourg tournament in 2005 and winning seven ITF singles titles...
, and Dinara Safina
Dinara Safina
Dinara Mikhailovna Safina , born April 27, 1986 in Moscow, is a Russian professional tennis player of Tatar background. Safina's career high ranking is World No. 1....
, whom she vanquished, 6–1, 6–1, to reach her second WTA Tour final, only to be denied the title by Czech qualifier Lucie Šafářová
Lucie Šafárová
Lucie Šafářová is a professional Czech tennis player. She was born in Brno.Šafářová has won four WTA tour singles titles and reached the quarterfinals of the 2007 Australian Open, upsetting defending champion Amélie Mauresmo en-route...
, who prevailed in a close three-set match, 7–6, 4–6, 3–6.
At Rabat in May, Li reached the semifinal stage, but further success proved ultimately elusive for her. With the score leveled at 3–3,she retired due to a right ankle sprain while clashing with Zheng Jie
Zheng Jie
Zheng Jie is a Chinese professional tennis player. Her career high ranking is World No. 15 which she achieved on May 18, 2009. As of August 15, 2011, Zheng is ranked World No. 65 in singles and World No. 20 in doubles....
. Reaching this semifinal propelled her to a career-high world ranking of 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 Chakvetadze
Anna Djambulilovna Chakvetadze is a Russian professional tennis player . On September 10, 2007, she reached her career-high professional singles ranking of World No. 5. She has won eight WTA Singles Titles and appeared in the 2007 US Open semifinals. As of July 4, 2011, Chakvetadze is ranked World...
of Russia. The following week, however, at the Canadian Open, she once more beat Jelena Janković
Jelena Janković
Jelena Janković is a former world no. 1 professional tennis player from Serbia. She reached the final of the 2008 US Open and won the 2007 Wimbledon Mixed Doubles title. Janković is ranked world no...
, and also defeated María Vento-Kabchi
Maria Vento-Kabchi
María Alejandra Vento-Kabchi is a professional female tennis player from Venezuela. On July 19, 2004 she reached her career-high singles ranking: World No...
, before suffering her second loss of the year to Nadia Petrova
Nadia Petrova
Nadezhda Viktorovna Petrova is a Russian professional tennis player.Overall, she has won 28 WTA Titles, ten in singles and eighteen in doubles. In singles, Petrova has reached a career high ranking of World No. 3 in May 2006 and has reached the semi-finals of the French Open in 2003 and 2005...
at the quarterfinal stage.
It was Lindsay Davenport
Lindsay Davenport
Lindsay Ann Davenport is a former World No. 1 American professional tennis player. She has won three Grand Slam singles tournaments and an Olympic gold medal in singles. In 2005, TENNIS Magazine ranked her as the 29th-best player of the preceding forty years...
who proved her undoing in her next two tournaments, beating her 4-6, 4-6, in the first round of the US Open, and 2-6, 2-6, at the semifinal stage in Bali in September, but not before Li Na had avenged her previous year's defeat by Yan Zi
Yan Zi
Yan Zi is a Chinese women's tennis player.Yan Zi may also refer to:* Stefanie Sun , also known as Sun Yan Zi, Singaporean singer** Yan Zi , Sun's self-titled album...
in the second round of the same tournament, in addition to recording victories over Nuria Llagostera Vives
Nuria Llagostera Vives
Nuria Llagostera Vives is a Spanish female tennis player. On June 6, 2005, Llagostera Vives reached her career-high singles ranking, World No. 35.During her career she has won 2 singles titles and 11 in doubles...
and Alona Bondarenko.
The following week, another highly ranked American player, Jill Craybas
Jill Craybas
- Early years :Craybas was born in Providence, Rhode Island. She received an athletic scholarship to attend the University of Florida in Gainesville, where she played for coach Andy Brandi's Florida Gators women's tennis team in National Collegiate Athletics Association competition from 1993 to...
, narrowly defeated Li Na in a close three-set first-round match at Beijing.
On September 26, Li Na commenced her defence of her Guangzhou title; but she was prevented from completing it in the quarterfinals by eventual champion Yan Zi
Yan Zi
Yan Zi is a Chinese women's tennis player.Yan Zi may also refer to:* Stefanie Sun , also known as Sun Yan Zi, Singaporean singer** Yan Zi , Sun's self-titled album...
, 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 $50,000 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
With nearly all her remaining ranking points to defend concentrated in a little over the first four months of the year, Li Na began the year faced with the challenge of equalling 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
Patty Schnyder
Patty Schnyder is a retired Swiss professional tennis player. She played on the WTA tour from 1993 to 2011 and is a former World No. 7. She defeated several World No...
for the first time at the quarterfinal stage. However, this match left her with a muscle sprain, and she lost to Nadia Petrova
Nadia Petrova
Nadezhda Viktorovna Petrova is a Russian professional tennis player.Overall, she has won 28 WTA Titles, ten in singles and eighteen in doubles. In singles, Petrova has reached a career high ranking of World No. 3 in May 2006 and has reached the semi-finals of the French Open in 2003 and 2005...
in the semifinal. Nonetheless, her performance at this high-level tournament saw her ranked no. 39.
Joining the WTA grass-court season for the first time at the DFS Classic tournament at Birmingham in June, she managed another third-round finish with wins over Mashona Washington
Mashona Washington
Mashona Washington is a professional tennis player from the United States.Mashona's career high singles ranking is no. 50 which she reached on November 8, 2004, and her career high doubles ranking is no...
and grass-court specialist Eleni Daniilidou
Eleni Daniilidou
Eleni Daniilidou is a Greek tennis player born in Chania, on the island of Crete.As of 2011, she has won five WTA singles titles and three doubles titles. In 2003, she reached the Australian Open mixed doubles final. Her highest singles ranking has been 14th...
, both in straight sets, then lost for the third time in three meetings to Maria Sharapova
Maria Sharapova
Maria Yuryevna Sharapova ,. is a Russian professional tennis player and a former world no. 1. A US resident since 1994, Sharapova has won 24 WTA singles titles, including three Grand Slam singles titles at the 2004 Wimbledon, 2006 US Open and 2008 Australian Open...
. 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
Jelena Janković
Jelena Janković is a former world no. 1 professional tennis player from Serbia. She reached the final of the 2008 US Open and won the 2007 Wimbledon Mixed Doubles title. Janković is ranked world no...
, she notched up her second career WTA doubles title, almost exactly six years from her first at Tashkent.
An early retirement against Alona Bondarenko in the first round of the Ondina Open at Hertogenbosch the following week curtailed her final competitive preparations for her debut appearance at Wimbledon
The Championships, Wimbledon
The Championships, Wimbledon, or simply Wimbledon , is the oldest tennis tournament in the world, considered by many to be the most prestigious. It has been held at the All England Club in Wimbledon, London since 1877. It is one of the four Grand Slam tennis tournaments, the other three Majors...
. 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
The Championships, Wimbledon
The Championships, Wimbledon, or simply Wimbledon , is the oldest tennis tournament in the world, considered by many to be the most prestigious. It has been held at the All England Club in Wimbledon, London since 1877. It is one of the four Grand Slam tennis tournaments, the other three Majors...
, she reached the fourth round with comfortable straight-sets wins over respected grass-court players Virginie Razzano
Virginie Razzano
Virginie Razzano , is a French professional tennis player and the current French No. 4. Razzano, who was born in Dijon, has won two WTA singles titles, both in 2007 in Guangzhou and Tokyo. Razzano reached her career high ranking of World No. 16 on September 14, 2009. As of May 2011, she is ranked...
and recent Birmingham
Birmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
semifinalist Meilen Tu
Meilen Tu
Meilen Tu is a former American professional female tennis player...
, followed by victory against 10th seeded Svetlana Kuznetsova
Svetlana Kuznetsova
Svetlana Aleksandrovna Kuznetsova ; born June 27, 1985) is a Russian professional tennis player and as of October 10, 2011 ranked No. 21 in the WTA singles and No. 90 in the doubles ranking. Kuznetsova has appeared in four singles Grand Slam finals, winning two, and has also appeared in six doubles...
, 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
Kim Clijsters
Kim Antonie Lode Clijsters is a Belgian professional tennis player. As of 7 November 2011, Clijsters is ranked No. 13 in singles. Clijsters is a former World No. 1 in both singles and doubles....
in two close sets.
She reached the quarterfinals at Stockholm, and the fourth round at the US Open, where she was beaten by Maria Sharapova
Maria Sharapova
Maria Yuryevna Sharapova ,. is a Russian professional tennis player and a former world no. 1. A US resident since 1994, Sharapova has won 24 WTA singles titles, including three Grand Slam singles titles at the 2004 Wimbledon, 2006 US Open and 2008 Australian Open...
, 4-6, 2-6. She then reached the quarterfinals at the China Open, where she was beaten by Svetlana Kuznetsova
Svetlana Kuznetsova
Svetlana Aleksandrovna Kuznetsova ; born June 27, 1985) is a Russian professional tennis player and as of October 10, 2011 ranked No. 21 in the WTA singles and No. 90 in the doubles ranking. Kuznetsova has appeared in four singles Grand Slam finals, winning two, and has also appeared in six doubles...
, and in Guangzhou.
2007
Li Na started the year by participating a Tier III event in Gold CoastGold Coast, Queensland
Gold Coast is a coastal city of Australia located in South East Queensland, 94km south of the state capital Brisbane. With a population approximately 540,000 in 2010, it is the second most populous city in the state, the sixth most populous city in the country, and also the most populous...
, Australia, where she reached the second round. The next week, she competed in Sydney. She defeated Francesca Schiavone
Francesca Schiavone
Francesca Schiavone is an Italian tennis player who turned professional in 1998. She won the 2010 French Open singles title, becoming the first Italian woman to win a Grand Slam event in singles. She was also runner-up at the 2011 French Open. As of 24 October 2011, Schiavone's ranking is World...
in the first round, Elena Dementieva
Elena Dementieva
Elena Viatcheslavovna Dementieva is a retired Russian professional tennis player. Dementieva is most notable for winning the singles gold medal at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. She won 16 WTA singles titles and reached the finals of the 2004 French Open and 2004 US Open. Dementieva achieved a...
in the second, saving five match points, and Katarina Srebotnik
Katarina Srebotnik
Katarina Srebotnik is a Slovenian professional tennis player. Srebotnik is right-handed, 1.80 m, weighs 65 kg and lives in Dubai. She reached a career-high ranking of No. 20 on the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour on August 7, 2006.Srebotnik won 4 singles titles on the WTA-tour and was a steady top 30...
in the quarterfinal. Then, she made it to the semifinals, losing a tough match to Kim Clijsters
Kim Clijsters
Kim Antonie Lode Clijsters is a Belgian professional tennis player. As of 7 November 2011, Clijsters is ranked No. 13 in singles. Clijsters is a former World No. 1 in both singles and doubles....
, 6-1, 1-6, 5-7. However, she rose to a career high of no.16 afterwards.
Li Na followed her strong showing at the Medibank tournament with an equally strong showing at the 2007 Australian Open
2007 Australian Open
The 2007 Australian Open was a Grand Slam tennis tournament held in Melbourne, Australia from 15 January until 28 January 2007.The total prize pool was set at exactly A$20 million, with the winners of both the men's and women's singles competition each receiving A$1,281,000. Over 500 players...
, where she advanced to the fourth round. Seeded 19th, Li dispatched Elena Bovina
Elena Bovina
Elena Olegovna Bovina is a Russian professional female tennis player. On April 4, 2005 Bovina reached her career-high singles ranking: World No. 14....
and Lourdes Domínguez Lino
Lourdes Dominguez Lino
Lourdes Domínguez Lino is a Spanish professional female tennis player. On 11 September 2006 Domínguez Lino reached her career-high singles ranking: World No...
in straight sets through the first two rounds, leading to a matchup with no. 9 Dinara Safina
Dinara Safina
Dinara Mikhailovna Safina , born April 27, 1986 in Moscow, is a Russian professional tennis player of Tatar background. Safina's career high ranking is World No. 1....
. The match was postponed due to rain, but Li handedly beat Safina, 6–2, 6–2, to advance to the fourth round to play Swiss star, no. 6 Martina Hingis
Martina Hingis
Martina Hingis is a retired Swiss professional tennis player who spent a total of 209 weeks as World No. 1. She won five Grand Slam singles titles...
. Due to a rain delay and the fact that Hingis played on Rod Laver Arena
Rod Laver Arena
Rod Laver Arena is a tennis stadium that is part of the Melbourne Park complex located in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, and has been the main venue for the Australian Open in tennis since 1988, replacing the ageing Kooyong Stadium...
, 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, 6-4, 3-6, 0-6, committing 69 unforced errors. Despite the loss, the tournament was a success for Na, 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
Toray Pan Pacific Open
The is a WTA Tour affiliated professional tennis tournament for women, held every year since 1984 on in Tokyo, Japan. It is classified on the WTA Tour as a Tier I tournament since 1993. The event has traditionally been played on indoor carpet at the Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium, but the 2008 event...
in Tokyo, Japan, Li advanced to the second round, defeating Lilia Osterloh
Lilia Osterloh
Lilia Osterloh is a tennis player from the United States, who started a professional career in August 1997....
, 6–3, 6–2, before losing to Samantha Stosur
Samantha Stosur
Samantha "Sam" Jane Stosur is an Australian professional tennis player. She won the 2011 US Open singles title and was a finalist at the 2010 French Open. Stosur is ranked World No. 6 and her career high in singles is World No. 4, achieved on 21 February 2011. She is a former world No...
, 2-6, 4-6, converting 0 of 11 break points.
At the important Pacific Life Open in Indian Wells, California, Li made a strong showing, advancing to the semifinals. She lost to Daniela Hantuchová
Daniela Hantuchová
Daniela Hantuchová is a Slovak professional tennis player. She turned professional in 1999 and had her breakthrough year in 2002, when she won her first Tier I tournament and ended the year in the top 10.She is currently coached by Larri Passos...
in the semifinal, 5-7,6-4, 1-6. She continued her good form at the Miami Masters
Miami Masters
The Miami Masters is an annual tennis tournament for men and women held in Key Biscayne, Miami, Florida. It is an ATP World Tour Masters 1000 event on the men's tour and a Premier Mandatory event on the women's tour and is played on hard courts at the Tennis Center at Crandon Park...
, losing just three games in her first two matches against Tamira Paszek
Tamira Paszek
Tamira Shelah Paszek is a professional tennis player from Austria. As of July 4, 2011, she is the no.1 ranked tennis player from Austria in the WTA ranking, at No. 41....
and Katarina Srebotnik
Katarina Srebotnik
Katarina Srebotnik is a Slovenian professional tennis player. Srebotnik is right-handed, 1.80 m, weighs 65 kg and lives in Dubai. She reached a career-high ranking of No. 20 on the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour on August 7, 2006.Srebotnik won 4 singles titles on the WTA-tour and was a steady top 30...
, before stunning fourth-seeded Kim Clijsters
Kim Clijsters
Kim Antonie Lode Clijsters is a Belgian professional tennis player. As of 7 November 2011, Clijsters is ranked No. 13 in singles. Clijsters is a former World No. 1 in both singles and doubles....
, 4–6, 6–4, 6–2. She then lost in the quarterfinals to Anna Chakvetadze
Anna Chakvetadze
Anna Djambulilovna Chakvetadze is a Russian professional tennis player . On September 10, 2007, she reached her career-high professional singles ranking of World No. 5. She has won eight WTA Singles Titles and appeared in the 2007 US Open semifinals. As of July 4, 2011, Chakvetadze is ranked World...
, 6-4, 5-7, 2-6.
She then moved onto the green clay of Amelia Island
Bausch & Lomb Championships
The MPS Group Championships was a women's tennis tournament held in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, United States. The Sony Ericsson WTA Tour event was an International series tournament played on outdoor green clay courts from 1980 to 2010.-History:...
, where she suffered a shock second-round exit after receiving a first round bye to former top-20 player Karolina Šprem
Karolina Šprem
Karolina Šprem was a Croatian tennis player.She has won eight titles all at the ITF level. She has not won any titles on the WTA Tour. Career highlight is a quarterfinal appearance at Wimbledon in 2004 where she defeated two-time champion, four-time finalist and then-world No...
in straight sets, 3-6, 3-6. At the Family Circle Cup
Family Circle Cup
The Family Circle Cup is a WTA Tour affiliated professional tennis tournament for women, held every year since 1973. The tournament is currently played on the green clay courts at the Daniel Island Tennis Center in Charleston, South Carolina, USA...
held in Charleston, South Carolina
Charleston, South Carolina
Charleston is the second largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina. It was made the county seat of Charleston County in 1901 when Charleston County was founded. The city's original name was Charles Towne in 1670, and it moved to its present location from a location on the west bank of the...
, she fell in the third round to Anabel Medina Garrigues
Anabel Medina Garrigues
Ana Isabel Medina Garrigues , better known as Anabel Medina, is a Spanish female tennis player. She reached a career high WTA Tour ranking of No. 16 on 4 May 2009, and has won 11 singles titles and 14 doubles titles, including the 2008 French Open and 2009 French Open with Virginia Ruano Pascual...
, 4-6, 5-7.
After losing in a grass tune-up event in Birmingham, Li has pulled out of every tournament she was to play in the summer, including Wimbledon and the US Open, citing a rib injury.
2008
2008 Mondial Australian Women's Hardcourts
The 2008 Mondial Australian Women's Hardcourts was a tennis tournament played on outdoor hard courts. It was the 12th and final edition of the Mondial Australian Women's Hardcourts, which was renamed and relocated to Brisbane, and was part of the Tier III Series of the 2008 WTA Tour...
in Gold Coast
Gold Coast, Queensland
Gold Coast is a coastal city of Australia located in South East Queensland, 94km south of the state capital Brisbane. With a population approximately 540,000 in 2010, it is the second most populous city in the state, the sixth most populous city in the country, and also the most populous...
, Australia. In the first round, she narrowly defeated seventh seed Sybille Bammer
Sybille Bammer
Sybille Bammer is a former professional female tennis player from Austria. Her career high ranking is No. 19, achieved on 17 December 2007....
, 6–4, 4–6, 6–4. After a comfortable second round victory over wildcard Monique Adamczak
Monique Adamczak
Monique Adamczak is an Australian professional tennis player. She is coached by Roger Federer's former coach, Tony Roche. Adamczak's favourite surface is grass....
, she was drawn to meet the top seed Nicole Vaidišová
Nicole Vaidišová
Nicole Vaidišová is a retired Czech tennis player.Vaidišová was an Australian Open and French Open semifinalist and also reached the quarterfinals at Wimbledon. Vaidišová started playing tennis when she was six years old, enrolling to train at Nick Bollettieri's tennis academy in Bradenton,...
in the quarterfinals. Li won their encounter in straight sets, 6–3, 6–3, advancing to the semifinals, where she edged past Patty Schnyder
Patty Schnyder
Patty Schnyder is a retired Swiss professional tennis player. She played on the WTA tour from 1993 to 2011 and is a former World No. 7. She defeated several World No...
, 3–6, 6–3, 7–5.
In the final, she narrowly prevailed against Victoria Azarenka
Victoria Azarenka
Victoria Azarenka is a Belarusian professional tennis player. Her career high and current ranking is world no. 3, which she first achieved on 12 September 2011. She became the highest-ranked Belarusian player ever, surpassing Natasha Zvereva by two spots....
, 4–6, 6–3, 6–4, to score her first singles title since Guangzhou in 2004 and the second WTA singles title in her overall career.
Despite rising back up to world no. 24 following this victory, she then withdrew from the 2008 Medibank International in Sydney, 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
Séverine Bremond
Séverine Beltrame is a professional female tennis player from France and the last active player of the notorious "generation 1979" which provided elite tennis players Amélie Mauresmo, Nathalie Dechy, Anne-Gaëlle Sidot and Emilie Loit.-Matches:In 2005, Beltrame was selected by the team leader...
in the first round, before surpassing Maria Elena Camerin
Maria Elena Camerin
Maria Elena Camerin is a professional female tennis player from Italy.On 11 October 2004, Camerin reached her career-high singles ranking: World No...
in straight sets in round two. A revitalised Marta Domachowska
Marta Domachowska
Marta Domachowska is a Polish professional tennis player. She began playing at age 7. She reached the semi finals of Australian Open Junior Championships in 2003. Her racquet brand is Wilson. She speaks four languages: Polish, English, Spanish and Russian. Other than tennis, she enjoys sports such...
remained between her and the defence of her ranking points, and although Li Na won the first set convincingly, 6–2, 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 straight-sets wins over Russian veteran Elena Likhovtseva
Elena Likhovtseva
Elena Alexandrovna Likhovtseva is a Russian tennis player, currently inactive. She turned professional in January 1992 at the age of 16.Likhovtseva's career best appearance in a Grand Slam was when she reached the semi finals of the French Open 2005 before she was defeated by Mary Pierce, 6–1 6–1...
, 6–1, 6–1, Slovak world no. 45 Dominika Cibulková
Dominika Cibulková
Dominika Cibulková is a Slovak professional tennis player. She is also a former World Junior No. 3, achieving that ranking in May 2005. Her career-high ranking of World No. 12 was achieved on 6 July 2009...
, 6–4, 6–4 and on-form Swedish world no. 66 Sofia Arvidsson
Sofia Arvidsson
Lena Sofia Alexandra Arvidsson is a Swedish tennis player. As of May 9, 2011, she is ranked World No. 77. Her highest career ranking is World No. 29.-Biography:...
, 7–5, 6–4. However, she came unstuck in the semifinals against world no. 47 Karin Knapp
Karin Knapp
Karin Knapp is an Italian female tennis player. She was ranked World No. 35 on 25 February 2008.-Career:...
, despite having taken an early lead with a break of service in the first set, ultimately ceding the match to her Italian opponent, 4–6, 6–7. This tournament brought her back up within the top 30 at world no. 29.
The next week in the Tier I 2008 Qatar Total Open
2008 Qatar Total Open
The 2008 Qatar Ladies Open, known as the 2008 Qatar Total Open, for sponsorship reasons, was a tennis tournament played on outdoor hard courts. It was the 8th edition of the Qatar Total Open, and was part of the Tier I Series of the 2008 WTA Tour...
, Li met Likhovtseva again in the first round, and this time, after taking the first set comfortably, was challenged to a much tougher battle, but eventually won, 6–1, 0–6, 6–4. In round 2, she scored her second straight-sets victory in four career head-to-heads against Russian world no. 6 Anna Chakvetadze
Anna Chakvetadze
Anna Djambulilovna Chakvetadze is a Russian professional tennis player . On September 10, 2007, she reached her career-high professional singles ranking of World No. 5. She has won eight WTA Singles Titles and appeared in the 2007 US Open semifinals. As of July 4, 2011, Chakvetadze is ranked World...
(whom she had last beaten at the French Open in 2005), saving a set point in the first set tie-break, before recovering to win, 7–6, 6–4. In the third round, she enjoyed a more comfortable victory over Israeli world no. 17 Shahar Pe'er
Shahar Pe'er
Shahar Pe'er is an Israeli professional tennis player. Her career-high singles ranking is World No. 11, which she achieved on January 31, 2011 ....
, recovering from a 1–3 deficit in the second set to win, 6–1, 6–3.
In the quarterfinals, she met her old rival and friend world no. 4 Jelena Janković
Jelena Janković
Jelena Janković is a former world no. 1 professional tennis player from Serbia. She reached the final of the 2008 US Open and won the 2007 Wimbledon Mixed Doubles title. Janković is ranked world no...
, coming into the match with a winning 3–1 head-to-head record to her credit against the Serbian player. By defeating Janković, 6–3, 6–4, she extended this record to 4:1 and moved into the semifinals, where she played Vera Zvonareva
Vera Zvonareva
Vera Zvonareva is a professional tennis player from Russia. She was introduced to tennis at the age of six and turned professional in 2000. Her career high is World No. 2 by the WTA, and she is currently ranked as the World No. 7. Zvonarёva has won twelve WTA Tour singles titles and reached the...
, against whom she had won both of her previous encounters. Despite taking the first set 6–3, 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
Bangalore
Bengaluru , formerly called Bengaluru is the capital of the Indian state of Karnataka. Bangalore is nicknamed the Garden City and was once called a pensioner's paradise. Located on the Deccan Plateau in the south-eastern part of Karnataka, Bangalore is India's third most populous city and...
in early March and the Tier I tournament at Indian Wells
Indian Wells Masters
The Indian Wells Masters is an annual tennis tournament held in Indian Wells, California....
in the middle of the month. She returned to action at the International Women's Open in Eastbourne, winning one round before losing to Nadia Petrova
Nadia Petrova
Nadezhda Viktorovna Petrova is a Russian professional tennis player.Overall, she has won 28 WTA Titles, ten in singles and eighteen in doubles. In singles, Petrova has reached a career high ranking of World No. 3 in May 2006 and has reached the semi-finals of the French Open in 2003 and 2005...
. She then contested Wimbledon, defeating Anastasia Rodionova, 3–6, 6–0, 6–1, before losing 2-6, 4-6 to Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova
Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova
Anastasia Sergeyevna Pavlyuchenkova is a Russian professional tennis player and a multiple junior Grand Slam champion. Her career-high rank of World No. 13 was achieved on 4 July 2011. From July 2007 to September 2009 she was coached at the Mouratoglou Tennis Academy in France...
.
At the Beijing Olympics, following early-round victories against world no. 3 Svetlana Kuznetsova
Svetlana Kuznetsova
Svetlana Aleksandrovna Kuznetsova ; born June 27, 1985) is a Russian professional tennis player and as of October 10, 2011 ranked No. 21 in the WTA singles and No. 90 in the doubles ranking. Kuznetsova has appeared in four singles Grand Slam finals, winning two, and has also appeared in six doubles...
, Ayumi Morita
Ayumi Morita
is a Japanese female tennis player. She reached her career-high ranking of 42nd in the world on June 6, 2011 and is currently the highest ranked Japanese player in the world at World No. 46, the seventh overall in Asia. At Junior level, she reached a career high ranking of No. 3.Morita is known for...
, and Kaia Kanepi
Kaia Kanepi
Kaia Kanepi is an Estonian professional tennis player. Her career-high ranking is world no. 16 reached on 14 February 2011....
, she went on to defeat one of the favourites, Venus Williams
Venus Williams
Venus Ebony Starr Williams is an American professional tennis player who is a former World No. 1 and is ranked World No. 101 as of 10 October 2011 in singles and World No. 20 in doubles as of 2011. She has been ranked World No. 1 in singles by the Women's Tennis Association on three separate...
, in the quarterfinals. Li was trailing 1–4 in the first set, but then managed to strengthen her game to win in straight sets. Li lost her semifinal match to sixth seed Dinara Safina
Dinara Safina
Dinara Mikhailovna Safina , born April 27, 1986 in Moscow, is a Russian professional tennis player of Tatar background. Safina's career high ranking is World No. 1....
, 6-7, 5-7, and was then defeated in the bronze final by Vera Zvonareva
Vera Zvonareva
Vera Zvonareva is a professional tennis player from Russia. She was introduced to tennis at the age of six and turned professional in 2000. Her career high is World No. 2 by the WTA, and she is currently ranked as the World No. 7. Zvonarёva has won twelve WTA Tour singles titles and reached the...
. At the following US Open, Li was defeated by the Beijing Olympics gold medalist Elena Dementieva
Elena Dementieva
Elena Viatcheslavovna Dementieva is a retired Russian professional tennis player. Dementieva is most notable for winning the singles gold medal at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. She won 16 WTA singles titles and reached the finals of the 2004 French Open and 2004 US Open. Dementieva achieved a...
in the fourth round.
In the 2008 Porsche Grand Prix
Porsche Tennis Grand Prix
The Porsche Tennis Grand Prix is a tennis tournament held in Stuttgart, Germany . Held since 1978, the tournament is the oldest women's indoor tournament in Europe. Currently it is a Tier II tournament on the WTA Tour. The singles champion also receives a Porsche 911 Carrera sports car in addition...
, the unseeded Li defeated no. 1 ranked Serena Williams
Serena Williams
Serena Jameka Williams is an American professional tennis player and a former world no. 1. The Women's Tennis Association has ranked her world no. 1 in singles on five separate occasions. She became the world no. 1 for the first time on July 8, 2002 and regained this ranking for the fifth time on...
in the second-round, 0–6, 6–1, 6–4. Li thus became only the second Chinese player to defeat a world no. 1 player, following Zheng Jie
Zheng Jie
Zheng Jie is a Chinese professional tennis player. Her career high ranking is World No. 15 which she achieved on May 18, 2009. As of August 15, 2011, Zheng is ranked World No. 65 in singles and World No. 20 in doubles....
's victory over Ana Ivanović
Ana Ivanovic
Ana Ivanović is a former world no. 1 Serbian tennis player. As of November 7, 2011, she is ranked 22th on the WTA rankings. She beat Dinara Safina to win the 2008 French Open and was the runner-up in singles at the 2007 French Open and the 2008 Australian Open...
at Wimbledon
2008 Wimbledon Championships
The 2008 Wimbledon Championships was a tennis tournament played on outdoor grass courts. It was the 122nd edition of the Wimbledon Championships, and the third Grand Slam event of the year...
in 2008.
2009
Li withdrew from both the inaugural Brisbane InternationalBrisbane International
The Brisbane International is a professional tennis tournament played on outdoor hard courts. It is currently part of the ATP World Tour 250 series of the Association of Tennis Professionals World Tour and of the WTA Premier tournaments of the Women's Tennis Association Tour...
, where she was defending champion (as she won the title at Gold Coast in 2008), and the Australian Open because of a right-knee injury. She made her comeback at the Paris Open
2009 Open GDF Suez
The 2009 Open GDF Suez was a women's professional tennis tournament played on indoor hardcourts. It was the 17th edition of the Open GDF Suez and was a Premier tournament on the 2009 WTA Tour...
. In the first round, she beat Ágnes Szávay
Ágnes Szávay
Ágnes Szávay is a professional tennis player from Hungary. She is the country's highest ranked tennis player. She was the WTA Newcomer of the Year in 2007. She achieved her career high ranking of World No. 13 on April 14, 2008.- Background :...
, 7–6, 6–2. In the second round, she lost to second-seeded Jelena Janković
Jelena Janković
Jelena Janković is a former world no. 1 professional tennis player from Serbia. She reached the final of the 2008 US Open and won the 2007 Wimbledon Mixed Doubles title. Janković is ranked world no...
, 0-6, 6-3, 2-6.
In the first round of the Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships
2009 Dubai Tennis Championships - Women's Singles
Elena Dementieva was the defending champion, but lost in the quartefinals to Venus Williams.Venus Williams won in the final, 6–4, 6–2, over Virginie Razzano.-Seeds:The top eight seeds receive a bye into the second round....
, Li lost to Russian Elena Vesnina
Elena Vesnina
Elena Sergeevna Vesnina is a professional female tennis player from Russia. Her career high rank was #22, achieved on 12 October 2009...
, 6-1, 4-6, 4-6.
Unseeded at the Monterrey Open
2009 Monterrey Open
The 2009 Monterrey Open was a tennis tournament played on outdoor hard courts. It was the first edition of the Monterrey Open and was categorized as an International tournament on the 2009 WTA Tour...
, she defeated world no. 10 and top seed Agnieszka Radwańska
Agnieszka Radwanska
Agnieszka Radwańska is a WTA Tour Polish tennis player.Her career high singles ranking is World No. 8, which she achieved on 22 February 2010. As of 24 October 2011, she is ranked World No. 8. In 2007, Radwańska became the first Polish player in history to claim a WTA Tour singles title when she...
in a first round match that lasted over two hours, 7–6, 4–6, 6–0. In the second round, she beat Petra Cetkovská
Petra Cetkovská
Petra Cetkovská is a professional female tennis player from the Czech Republic and is of ethnic Macedonian origin. She reached her career high singles ranking No.30 on 24 October 2011.-Career:...
, 6–3, 6–4. She advanced to the semifinals after defeating Lucie Šafářová
Lucie Šafárová
Lucie Šafářová is a professional Czech tennis player. She was born in Brno.Šafářová has won four WTA tour singles titles and reached the quarterfinals of the 2007 Australian Open, upsetting defending champion Amélie Mauresmo en-route...
, 6–3, 7–6. Li then moved into her fifth career tour final, after beating sixth-seeded Iveta Benešová
Iveta Benešová
Iveta Benešová is a professional tennis player. She began playing tennis at age of 7 and turned professional in 1998 in Prague. She has won two WTA Tour events and one Grand Slam in mixed doubles partnering with Jürgen Melzer at the 2011 Wimbledon Championships.-2006–2008:In the 2006 Australian...
, 6–3, 6–3. However, Li lost to second-seeded Marion Bartoli
Marion Bartoli
Marion Bartoli is a French professional tennis player and the current French no. 1. She has won seven Women's Tennis Association singles titles and three doubles titles. She was also a runner-up at the 2007 Wimbledon Championships....
in the final in straight sets.
Li then played in the Premier event at Indian Wells, where she defeated Tamarine Tanasugarn
Tamarine Tanasugarn
Tamarine Tanasugarn is a professional Thai tennis player. She was born in Los Angeles, United States, and turned professional in 1994. She has been in the top 20 in both singles and doubles....
, Patty Schnyder
Patty Schnyder
Patty Schnyder is a retired Swiss professional tennis player. She played on the WTA tour from 1993 to 2011 and is a former World No. 7. She defeated several World No...
, and Amélie Mauresmo
Amélie Mauresmo
Amélie Simone Mauresmo ; is a French former professional tennis player, and a former World No. 1. Mauresmo won two Grand Slam singles titles at the Australian Open and at Wimbledon....
, all in straight sets, to advance to the fourth round, where she lost to eventual champion Vera Zvonareva
Vera Zvonareva
Vera Zvonareva is a professional tennis player from Russia. She was introduced to tennis at the age of six and turned professional in 2000. Her career high is World No. 2 by the WTA, and she is currently ranked as the World No. 7. Zvonarёva has won twelve WTA Tour singles titles and reached the...
, 4–6, 4–6.
She then reached the quarterfinals of the Premier event in Miami, where she beat qualifier Urszula Radwańska
Urszula Radwanska
Urszula Radwańska is a Polish tennis player and a younger sister of Agnieszka Radwańska. She reached her career high ranking of World No. 62 on 10 August 2009.-Tennis career:...
in the first round and upset 29th seed Aleksandra Wozniak
Aleksandra Wozniak
Aleksandra Wozniak is a Canadian professional tennis player. She turned professional in November 2005. Wozniak achieved a career-best ranking of no. 21 on June 22, 2009, making her the fourth-highest ranked Canadian singles player of all time. She has won one WTA and eight ITF tournaments...
to reach the third round, where she caused a big upset by defeating the previous week's Indian Wells champion, 6th-seeded Vera Zvonareva
Vera Zvonareva
Vera Zvonareva is a professional tennis player from Russia. She was introduced to tennis at the age of six and turned professional in 2000. Her career high is World No. 2 by the WTA, and she is currently ranked as the World No. 7. Zvonarёva has won twelve WTA Tour singles titles and reached the...
in three sets, 6–4, 3–6, 6–2. 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 Makarova
Ekaterina Valeryevna Makarova is a professional Russian tennis player. She achieved her career high ranking of number 29 on June 6, 2011.-Career:...
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
Serena Williams
Serena Jameka Williams is an American professional tennis player and a former world no. 1. The Women's Tennis Association has ranked her world no. 1 in singles on five separate occasions. She became the world no. 1 for the first time on July 8, 2002 and regained this ranking for the fifth time on...
, a match which she lost in a tight three-setter, 6–4, 6–7, 2–6. Because of her strong performance, her ranking went up to world no. 29 from world no. 40.
Her next event was the second Grand Slam of the year, the French Open in Paris. As the 25th seed, she won her first round 6–4, 6–2 against Polish Marta Domachowska
Marta Domachowska
Marta Domachowska is a Polish professional tennis player. She began playing at age 7. She reached the semi finals of Australian Open Junior Championships in 2003. Her racquet brand is Wilson. She speaks four languages: Polish, English, Spanish and Russian. Other than tennis, she enjoys sports such...
. She then defeated Timea Bacsinszky
Timea Bacsinszky
Timea Bacsinszky is a professional female tennis player residing in Belmont-sur-Lausanne, Switzerland. She joined the WTA Tour in 2004 and was ranked World No. 37 on 7 June 2010....
and Olga Govortsova
Olga Govortsova
Olga Govortsova is a professional Belarusian tennis player. As of May 10, 2010 her highest singles ranking on the WTA is World Number 35, which she achieved on June 23, 2008.-Career:...
. She then lost to unseeded, former world no. 1 Maria Sharapova
Maria Sharapova
Maria Yuryevna Sharapova ,. is a Russian professional tennis player and a former world no. 1. A US resident since 1994, Sharapova has won 24 WTA singles titles, including three Grand Slam singles titles at the 2004 Wimbledon, 2006 US Open and 2008 Australian Open...
in the fourth round, 4–6, 6–0, 4–6. After this impressive result, she jumped six rankings up to no. 20.
She started her grass-court season as the fourth seed at the AEGON Classic
2009 AEGON Classic - Singles
Kateryna Bondarenko was the defending champion, but chose not to participate that year.-Seeds:The top eight seeds receive a bye into the second round.# Zheng Jie # Kaia Kanepi # Aleksandra Wozniak ...
in Birmingham
Birmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
. She advanced to the final with a 6–4, 6–4 win over Maria Sharapova
Maria Sharapova
Maria Yuryevna Sharapova ,. is a Russian professional tennis player and a former world no. 1. A US resident since 1994, Sharapova has won 24 WTA singles titles, including three Grand Slam singles titles at the 2004 Wimbledon, 2006 US Open and 2008 Australian Open...
in the semifinals. However, Na was defeated by Magdaléna Rybáriková
Magdaléna Rybáriková
Magdaléna Rybáriková is a Slovak professional tennis player. On June 22, 2009, she achieved her career-high WTA singles ranking of 40th.-Biography:...
, 0–6, 6–7, in the final.
Na was seeded 19th at the 2009 Wimbledon Championships
2009 Wimbledon Championships
The 2009 Wimbledon Championships took place on the outdoor grass courts at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon, London, from Monday 22 June through to Sunday 5 July 2009...
. She defeated Galina Voskoboeva
Galina Voskoboeva
Galina Olegovna Voskoboeva is a professional Russian-born Kazakhstani tennis player. She reached her career-high singles rank of World No. 56 on October 10, 2011. Her career high in doubles is 31st, set at January 29, 2007.-Early life:...
in the first round and Olga Govortsova
Olga Govortsova
Olga Govortsova is a professional Belarusian tennis player. As of May 10, 2010 her highest singles ranking on the WTA is World Number 35, which she achieved on June 23, 2008.-Career:...
in the second round, but lost to no. 11 Agnieszka Radwańska
Agnieszka Radwanska
Agnieszka Radwańska is a WTA Tour Polish tennis player.Her career high singles ranking is World No. 8, which she achieved on 22 February 2010. As of 24 October 2011, she is ranked World No. 8. In 2007, Radwańska became the first Polish player in history to claim a WTA Tour singles title when she...
in the third round.
At the 2009 Bank of the West Classic
2009 Bank of the West Classic
The 2009 Bank of the West Classic was a tennis tournament played on outdoor hard courts. It was the 38th edition of the Bank of the West Classic, and was part of the WTA Premier tournaments of the 2009 WTA Tour. It took place at the Taube Tennis Center in Stanford, California, United States, from...
, she lost to Serena Williams
Serena Williams
Serena Jameka Williams is an American professional tennis player and a former world no. 1. The Women's Tennis Association has ranked her world no. 1 in singles on five separate occasions. She became the world no. 1 for the first time on July 8, 2002 and regained this ranking for the fifth time on...
in the first round, and at the 2009 LA Women's Tennis Championships p/b Herbalife
2009 LA Women's Tennis Championships
The 2009 LA Women's Tennis Championships was a tennis tournament played on outdoor hard courts. It was the 36th edition of the LA Women's Tennis Championships, and was part of the Premier Series of the 2009 WTA Tour...
, she withdrew due to injury during her match with Urszula Radwańska
Urszula Radwanska
Urszula Radwańska is a Polish tennis player and a younger sister of Agnieszka Radwańska. She reached her career high ranking of World No. 62 on 10 August 2009.-Tennis career:...
of Poland.
Seeded 18th at the 2009 US Open
2009 US Open (tennis)
The 2009 US Open was a tennis tournament played on outdoor hard courts, held from August 31 to September 14, 2009 in the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center at Flushing Meadows, New York City, United States. Originally, it was scheduled to end with the mens' singles final match on Sunday,...
, she reached her first US Open quarterfinals, where she lost to Kim Clijsters
Kim Clijsters
Kim Antonie Lode Clijsters is a Belgian professional tennis player. As of 7 November 2011, Clijsters is ranked No. 13 in singles. Clijsters is a former World No. 1 in both singles and doubles....
. En route to the quarterfinals, she defeated Ioana Raluca Olaru
Ioana Raluca Olaru
Ioana Raluca Olaru is a Romanian tennis player. As of 2 August 2010, she is ranked World No. 158 in singles and No. 104 in doubles. The winner of nine singles and six doubles ITF Circuit titles, Olaru reached one WTA Tour singles final, at the 2009 Gastein Ladies, losing to Andrea Petkovic 6–2, 6–3...
, Michelle Larcher de Brito
Michelle Larcher de Brito
Michelle Caroline Larcher de Brito, born Micaela Carolina Larcher de Brito, also known as Michelle Larcher de Brito or Michelle Brito is a Portuguese tennis player. Larcher de Brito's family moved to the United States when she was nine years old so she could attend the Nick Bollettieri Tennis...
, Maria Kirilenko
Maria Kirilenko
Maria Yuryevna Kirilenko is a Russian professional tennis player. Kirilenko won her first WTA Tour title in 2005, defeating Anna-Lena Grönefeld in the China Open. Kirilenko reached no. 18, her career-high singles ranking, on the WTA tour in July 2008. She won the junior event at the 2002 Canadian...
, and Francesca Schiavone
Francesca Schiavone
Francesca Schiavone is an Italian tennis player who turned professional in 1998. She won the 2010 French Open singles title, becoming the first Italian woman to win a Grand Slam event in singles. She was also runner-up at the 2011 French Open. As of 24 October 2011, Schiavone's ranking is World...
all in straight sets.
Seeded 15th at the Toray Pan Pacific Open
Toray Pan Pacific Open
The is a WTA Tour affiliated professional tennis tournament for women, held every year since 1984 on in Tokyo, Japan. It is classified on the WTA Tour as a Tier I tournament since 1993. The event has traditionally been played on indoor carpet at the Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium, but the 2008 event...
, Li Na won her opening match against Alizé Cornet
Alizé Cornet
Alizé Cornet is a French professional tennis player and the current French number three . She was born in Nice, Alpes-Maritimes, and has a career-high ranking of No. 11, achieved on 16 February 2009; as of 4 July 2011 she is ranked World No. 69...
, 6–4, 6–0. She then defeated Vera Dushevina
Vera Dushevina
Vera Yevgenyevna Dushevina is a Russian professional female tennis player. She was born in Moscow but now resides in Khimki, Russia. In 2006, she privately amended the presentation of her surname so as to be more English language friendly, adopting Dushevina in place of Douchevina which is a...
, 7–5, 6–0, before defeating Kateryna Bondarenko
Kateryna Bondarenko
Kateryna Volodymyrivna Bondarenko is a professional female tennis player from Ukraine and a doubles champion at Australian Open 2008.The younger sister of professional tennis players Valeria and Alona Bondarenko, she was born in Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine, then part of the Soviet Union. She was...
, 2–6, 7–5, 6–3. In the quarterfinal, she defeated Victoria Azarenka
Victoria Azarenka
Victoria Azarenka is a Belarusian professional tennis player. Her career high and current ranking is world no. 3, which she first achieved on 12 September 2011. She became the highest-ranked Belarusian player ever, surpassing Natasha Zvereva by two spots....
in three sets, 7–6, 4–6, 7–6, though she failed to serve for the match twice in the last set. Li lost in the semifinals to Jelena Janković
Jelena Janković
Jelena Janković is a former world no. 1 professional tennis player from Serbia. She reached the final of the 2008 US Open and won the 2007 Wimbledon Mixed Doubles title. Janković is ranked world no...
, 4-6, 3-6.
Li finished the year at world no. 15, her career-high year-end ranking.
2010
Li's first tournament of 2010 was the 2010 ASB Classic2010 ASB Classic
The 2010 ASB Classic was a tennis tournament played on outdoor hard courts. It was the 25th edition of the ASB Classic, and was part of the WTA International tournaments of the 2010 WTA Tour...
in Auckland
Auckland
The Auckland metropolitan area , in the North Island of New Zealand, is the largest and most populous urban area in the country with residents, percent of the country's population. Auckland also has the largest Polynesian population of any city in the world...
, where she was seeded second. She was defeated by Kaia Kanepi
Kaia Kanepi
Kaia Kanepi is an Estonian professional tennis player. Her career-high ranking is world no. 16 reached on 14 February 2011....
in the first round, 1-6, 3-6. In the Medibank International, she defeated fourth seed Caroline Wozniacki
Caroline Wozniacki
Caroline Wozniacki is a Danish professional tennis player. She is the current world no. 1 on the WTA Tour. As of 7 November 2011, she has held this position for 56 weeks...
, 2–6, 6–3, 6–2. She lost to Flavia Pennetta
Flavia Pennetta
Flavia Pennetta is an Italian professional tennis player. She became Italy's first top 10 female singles player on 17 August 2009 and also the first ever Italian Tennis player to be ranked No.1 in Doubles on 28 February 2011. As of 10 October 2011, Pennetta is ranked World No. 18 in singles and...
in the second round, 2–6, 6–7.
Li was seeded 16th at the 2010 Australian Open
2010 Australian Open
The 2010 Australian Open was a tennis tournament that took place in Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Australia, from 18 to 31 January. It was the 98th edition of the Australian Open, and the first Grand Slam event of the year....
. She defeated world no. 4 Caroline Wozniacki
Caroline Wozniacki
Caroline Wozniacki is a Danish professional tennis player. She is the current world no. 1 on the WTA Tour. As of 7 November 2011, she has held this position for 56 weeks...
in the fourth round, 6–4, 6–3, and then came from a set and 3–5 down to defeat world no. 6 Venus Williams
Venus Williams
Venus Ebony Starr Williams is an American professional tennis player who is a former World No. 1 and is ranked World No. 101 as of 10 October 2011 in singles and World No. 20 in doubles as of 2011. She has been ranked World No. 1 in singles by the Women's Tennis Association on three separate...
, 2–6, 7–6, 7–5, in her first Australian Open quarterfinal, and only her third Grand Slam
Grand Slam (tennis)
The four Major tennis tournaments, also called the Slams, are the most important tennis events of the year in terms of world tour ranking points, tradition, prize-money awarded, strength and size of player field, and public attention. They are the Australian Open, the French Open, Wimbledon, and...
quarterfinal. In the semifinals, she lost to Serena Williams
Serena Williams
Serena Jameka Williams is an American professional tennis player and a former world no. 1. The Women's Tennis Association has ranked her world no. 1 in singles on five separate occasions. She became the world no. 1 for the first time on July 8, 2002 and regained this ranking for the fifth time on...
, 6-7, 6-7. As a result of this performance, Li was the first Chinese woman ever to be ranked in the top 10 of women's professional tennis.
At the Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships, Li, the eighth seed, defeated María José Martínez Sánchez
María José Martínez Sánchez
María José Martínez Sánchez is a Spanish professional tennis player. In singles, she has won five WTA singles titles, the 2009 Copa Sony Ericsson Colsanitas, the 2009 Swedish Open, the Premier 5 event, 2010 Internazionali BNL d'Italia, the 2011 Gastein Ladies and the 2011 Hansol Korea Open. She...
, 7–6, 2–6, 6–4, in the second round. She then came from a 6–3 5–2 deficit to defeat Marion Bartoli
Marion Bartoli
Marion Bartoli is a French professional tennis player and the current French no. 1. She has won seven Women's Tennis Association singles titles and three doubles titles. She was also a runner-up at the 2007 Wimbledon Championships....
in the third round, 3–6, 7–5, 6–0. Li retired in her quarterfinals match against Shahar Pe'er
Shahar Pe'er
Shahar Pe'er is an Israeli professional tennis player. Her career-high singles ranking is World No. 11, which she achieved on January 31, 2011 ....
. Li was trailing 5–7, 0–3 when she retired.
Li continued her season at the inaugural Malaysian Open
Malaysian Open (tennis)
The Malaysian Open is a professional tennis tournament played on indoor hard courts. It is currently part of the ATP World Tour 250 series of the Association of Tennis Professionals World Tour. It will be held annually in late September, early October at the Bukit Jalil Sports Complex in Kuala...
. As second seed, she fell to Tatjana Malek
Tatjana Malek
Tatjana Malek is a professional German tennis player. She achieved her highest singles ranking of World No. 64 on 14 September 2009. Her highest doubles ranking of World No. 73 came on 3 May 2010. Malek has won 8 ITF singles titles and 7 ITF doubles title but no WTA tour singles or doubles titles...
in the first round. As seventh seed at the 2010 BNP Paribas Open
2010 BNP Paribas Open
The 2010 BNP Paribas Open was a tennis tournament played at Indian Wells, California in March 2010. It was the 36th edition of the event, known this year as the BNP Paribas Open, and is classified as an ATP World Tour Masters 1000 event on the 2010 ATP World Tour and a Premier Mandatory event on...
, Li fell to Elena Baltacha
Elena Baltacha
Elena Baltacha is a British professional tennis player of Ukrainian background. Being a four-time winner of the AEGON Award, she is also the long standing British number 1, a position she has held intermittently since 2002. As of 24 November 2011 she holds a current world ranking of No. 50. Her...
in the second round, 6–7, 6–2, 6–7. Li was eighth seed at the 2010 Sony Ericsson Open
2010 Sony Ericsson Open
The 2010 Sony Ericsson Open , was a tennis tournament for men and women held from March 22 to April 4, 2010. It was the 26th edition of the Miami Masters event and is played on outdoor hard courts at the Tennis Center at Crandon Park in Key Biscayne, Florida, located near Miami...
, but fell to Timea Bacsinszky
Timea Bacsinszky
Timea Bacsinszky is a professional female tennis player residing in Belmont-sur-Lausanne, Switzerland. She joined the WTA Tour in 2004 and was ranked World No. 37 on 7 June 2010....
in the second round.
At the 2010 Porsche Tennis Grand Prix
2010 Porsche Tennis Grand Prix
The 2010 Porsche Tennis Grand Prix was a tennis tournament played on indoor clay courts. It was the 33rd edition of the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix, and was part of the Premier tournaments of the 2010 WTA Tour. It took place at the Porsche Arena in Stuttgart, Germany, from April 24 through May 2, 2010...
, Li defeated defending champion Svetlana Kuznetsova
Svetlana Kuznetsova
Svetlana Aleksandrovna Kuznetsova ; born June 27, 1985) is a Russian professional tennis player and as of October 10, 2011 ranked No. 21 in the WTA singles and No. 90 in the doubles ranking. Kuznetsova has appeared in four singles Grand Slam finals, winning two, and has also appeared in six doubles...
in the second round, before falling to eventual runner-up Sam Stosur, 3-6, 3-6, in the quarterfinals. Li was 11th seed at the 2010 French Open
2010 French Open
The 2010 French Open was a tennis tournament played on outdoor clay courts. It was the 109th edition of the French Open, and the second Grand Slam event of the year...
. She fell to eventual champion and no. 17 Francesca Schiavone
Francesca Schiavone
Francesca Schiavone is an Italian tennis player who turned professional in 1998. She won the 2010 French Open singles title, becoming the first Italian woman to win a Grand Slam event in singles. She was also runner-up at the 2011 French Open. As of 24 October 2011, Schiavone's ranking is World...
in the third round.
Li was seeded first at the 2010 AEGON Classic
2010 AEGON Classic
The 2010 AEGON Classic was a tennis tournament played on outdoor grass courts. It was the 29th edition of the event. It took place at the Edgbaston Priory Club in Birmingham, England, United Kingdom, from June 7 through June 13, 2010.-Seeds:...
. She defeated fourth seed Aravane Rezaï
Aravane Rezaï
Aravane Rezaï is an Iranian-French tennis player born in Saint-Étienne, France to Iranian parents. She is the current French No. 5 in women's tennis. Rezaï took up tennis after a childhood stint as her older brother's ball girl...
in the semifinals, and second seed Maria Sharapova
Maria Sharapova
Maria Yuryevna Sharapova ,. is a Russian professional tennis player and a former world no. 1. A US resident since 1994, Sharapova has won 24 WTA singles titles, including three Grand Slam singles titles at the 2004 Wimbledon, 2006 US Open and 2008 Australian Open...
in the final to win the tournament. With the win, Li returned to the top 10 in the WTA rankings. Seeded seventh at the 2010 AEGON International
2010 AEGON International
The 2010 AEGON International was a combined men's and women's tennis tournament played on outdoor grass courts. It was the 35th edition of the event for the women and the 2nd edition for the men. It was classified as a WTA Premier tournament on the 2010 WTA Tour and as an ATP World Tour 250 series...
, Li retired with a knee injury when she led Elena Baltacha
Elena Baltacha
Elena Baltacha is a British professional tennis player of Ukrainian background. Being a four-time winner of the AEGON Award, she is also the long standing British number 1, a position she has held intermittently since 2002. As of 24 November 2011 she holds a current world ranking of No. 50. Her...
. 7-6, in the first round.
Li was seeded ninth at Wimbledon
2010 Wimbledon Championships
The 2010 Wimbledon Championships took place on the outdoor grass courts at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon, London, United Kingdom. The tournament ran from Monday 21 June until Sunday 4 July 2010. It was the 124th staging of the Wimbledon Championships, and the third Grand...
. She defeated seventh seed Agnieszka Radwańska
Agnieszka Radwanska
Agnieszka Radwańska is a WTA Tour Polish tennis player.Her career high singles ranking is World No. 8, which she achieved on 22 February 2010. As of 24 October 2011, she is ranked World No. 8. In 2007, Radwańska became the first Polish player in history to claim a WTA Tour singles title when she...
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
Serena Williams
Serena Jameka Williams is an American professional tennis player and a former world no. 1. The Women's Tennis Association has ranked her world no. 1 in singles on five separate occasions. She became the world no. 1 for the first time on July 8, 2002 and regained this ranking for the fifth time on...
, 5-7, 3-6. By going into the last eight, Li once again returned to the top 10 in the WTA rankings. At the 2010 US Open
2010 US Open (tennis)
The 2010 US Open was a tennis tournament played on outdoor hard courts, held from August 30 to September 13, 2010 in the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center at Flushing Meadows, Queens, New York City, United States....
, she started off as the eighth seed, but suffered an upset to Kateryna Bondarenko
Kateryna Bondarenko
Kateryna Volodymyrivna Bondarenko is a professional female tennis player from Ukraine and a doubles champion at Australian Open 2008.The younger sister of professional tennis players Valeria and Alona Bondarenko, she was born in Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine, then part of the Soviet Union. She was...
, 6-2, 4-6, 2-6.
At the end of the year, Li's coach Thomas Hogstead chose to leave her in order to coach Maria Sharapova
Maria Sharapova
Maria Yuryevna Sharapova ,. is a Russian professional tennis player and a former world no. 1. A US resident since 1994, Sharapova has won 24 WTA singles titles, including three Grand Slam singles titles at the 2004 Wimbledon, 2006 US Open and 2008 Australian Open...
.
2011
Li played in 2011 Medibank International Sydney2011 Medibank International Sydney
The 2011 Medibank International Sydney was a tennis tournament played on outdoor hard courts. It was the 119th edition of the Medibank International Sydney, and part of the ATP World Tour 250 series of the 2011 ATP World Tour, and of the WTA Premier tournaments of the 2011 WTA Tour...
as eighth seed, making fast work of Australian wildcard Anastasia Rodionova, 6–1, 6–2, and winning a tough three-set match against Virginie Razzano
Virginie Razzano
Virginie Razzano , is a French professional tennis player and the current French No. 4. Razzano, who was born in Dijon, has won two WTA singles titles, both in 2007 in Guangzhou and Tokyo. Razzano reached her career high ranking of World No. 16 on September 14, 2009. As of May 2011, she is ranked...
, 6–4, 1–6, 6–4, in the first two rounds. In the quarterfinals she met two-time Grand Slam winner Svetlana Kuznetsova
Svetlana Kuznetsova
Svetlana Aleksandrovna Kuznetsova ; born June 27, 1985) is a Russian professional tennis player and as of October 10, 2011 ranked No. 21 in the WTA singles and No. 90 in the doubles ranking. Kuznetsova has appeared in four singles Grand Slam finals, winning two, and has also appeared in six doubles...
and came through with a 3–6, 7–6, 6–0 win. She defeated surprise qualifier Bojana Jovanovski
Bojana Jovanovski
Bojana Jovanovski is a Serbian tennis player. As of 24 October 2011, Jovanovski is ranked World No. 56 and is the third highest ranked Serbian player, after World No. 14 Jelena Janković and No. 26 Ana Ivanović...
in the semifinals, 7–6, 6–3, to advance to her eighth WTA
Women's Tennis Association
The Women's Tennis Association , founded in 1973 by Billie Jean King, is the principal organizing body of Women's Professional Tennis. It governs the WTA Tour which is the worldwide professional tennis tour for women. Its counterpart organization in the men's professional game is the Association of...
final. Li faced world no. 3 Kim Clijsters
Kim Clijsters
Kim Antonie Lode Clijsters is a Belgian professional tennis player. As of 7 November 2011, Clijsters is ranked No. 13 in singles. Clijsters is a former World No. 1 in both singles and doubles....
in the final, and despite trailing 5–0 in the first set, Li went on to defeat Clijsters, 7–6, 6–3.
Li was ninth seed at the 2011 Australian Open
2011 Australian Open
The 2011 Australian Open was a tennis tournament featuring six different competitions, and part of the 2011 ATP World Tour, the 2011 WTA Tour, ITF Junior Tour and the NEC Tour, as tournaments for professional, junior and wheelchair players were held...
, where she reached her first Grand Slam singles final. On her way there, she ousted the eighth seed Victoria Azarenka
Victoria Azarenka
Victoria Azarenka is a Belarusian professional tennis player. Her career high and current ranking is world no. 3, which she first achieved on 12 September 2011. She became the highest-ranked Belarusian player ever, surpassing Natasha Zvereva by two spots....
in straight sets, 6–3, 6–3. She then defeated world no. 1 Caroline Wozniacki
Caroline Wozniacki
Caroline Wozniacki is a Danish professional tennis player. She is the current world no. 1 on the WTA Tour. As of 7 November 2011, she has held this position for 56 weeks...
in the semifinals to reach her first Grand Slam final, after saving a match point in the second set, 3–6, 7–5, 6–3. She became the first Chinese player to reach a Grand Slam singles final, facing no. 3 seed Kim Clijsters
Kim Clijsters
Kim Antonie Lode Clijsters is a Belgian professional tennis player. As of 7 November 2011, Clijsters is ranked No. 13 in singles. Clijsters is a former World No. 1 in both singles and doubles....
(whom she had defeated at the Medibank International). Although Li claimed the first set, Clijsters was able to rally back and claim the championship, winning 3–6, 6–3, 6–3. Despite the loss, Li's ranking rose to a career high of world no. 7.
Despite a good early start to the season, Li then had a five-match losing streak. She lost in the first round of 2011 Dubai Tennis Championships
2011 Dubai Tennis Championships
The 2011 Dubai Tennis Championships was a 500 Series event on the 2011 ATP World Tour and a Premier 5 event on the 2011 WTA Tour. The tournament was known as the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships for sponsorship reasons...
and 2011 Qatar Ladies Open
2011 Qatar Ladies Open
The 2011 Qatar Ladies Open was a professional tennis tournament played on hard courts. It was the ninth edition of the tournament and the first since 2008 which was part of the 2011 WTA Tour...
. After a receiving bye in the first round, she lost in the second round of the 2011 BNP Paribas Open
2011 BNP Paribas Open
The 2011 BNP Paribas Open was a tennis tournament played at Indian Wells, California in March 2011. It was the 36th edition of the event, known as the BNP Paribas Open, and was classified as an ATP World Tour Masters 1000 event on the 2011 ATP World Tour and a Premier Mandatory event on the 2011...
. Despite this, after Indian Wells she reached a career-high ranking of world no. 6 due, to Jelena Janković
Jelena Janković
Jelena Janković is a former world no. 1 professional tennis player from Serbia. She reached the final of the 2008 US Open and won the 2007 Wimbledon Mixed Doubles title. Janković is ranked world no...
's failures to defend her points.
Li's losing streak then continued, when she was upset in the 2011 Sony Ericsson Open
2011 Sony Ericsson Open
The 2011 Sony Ericsson Open , a men's and women's tennis tournament, was held from March 21 to April 3, 2011. It was the 27th edition of the Miami Masters event and played on outdoor hard courts at the Tennis Center at Crandon Park in Miami...
by Swede Johanna Larsson, 5–7, 7–6, 6–7. With this loss, and Andy Murray's loss at Miami, both Australian Open
Australian Open
The Australian Open is the only Grand Slam tennis tournament held in the southern hemisphere. The tournament was held for the first time in 1905 and was last contested on grass in 1987. Since 1972 the Australian Open has been held in Melbourne, Victoria. In 1988, the tournament became a hard court...
finalists had yet to win a match since the first Grand Slam. Despite Li's successive losses, her no. 6 ranking was ensured due to Samantha Stosur
Samantha Stosur
Samantha "Sam" Jane Stosur is an Australian professional tennis player. She won the 2011 US Open singles title and was a finalist at the 2010 French Open. Stosur is ranked World No. 6 and her career high in singles is World No. 4, achieved on 21 February 2011. She is a former world No...
's inability to defend her clay-season points. After a week, she fell back to no. 7. Li then broke her losing streak by winning her first-round match against Anastasija Sevastova
Anastasija Sevastova
Anastasija Sevastova is a Latvian tennis player. On January 31, 2011, she achieved her career-high WTA singles ranking of No. 36. On August 31, 2009, she claimed her highest Doubles rank of No. 195...
in Stuttgart, 6–2, 6–3. However, she subsequently lost to Sabine Lisicki
Sabine Lisicki
Sabine Lisicki is a German professional tennis player of Polish background.Lisicki has won three WTA singles tournaments in her career and one doubles tournament . She reached the semifinals of the 2011 Wimbledon Championships and also reached the quarterfinals of the 2009 Wimbledon Championships...
in the second round, 4–6, 5–7. Even though she was not able to defend all her Stuttgart ranking points, she rose back to no. 6, with Samantha Stosur
Samantha Stosur
Samantha "Sam" Jane Stosur is an Australian professional tennis player. She won the 2011 US Open singles title and was a finalist at the 2010 French Open. Stosur is ranked World No. 6 and her career high in singles is World No. 4, achieved on 21 February 2011. She is a former world No...
's inability to defend her own Stuttgart points. However, with her disappointing results, Li Na sacked her husband as coach and hired the Dane Michael Mortensen
Michael Mortensen
Michael Mortensen , is a former professional tennis player from Denmark.Mortensen achieved a career-high doubles ranking of World No. 34 in 1988 and a career-high singles ranking of World No. 301 in 1984...
.
She entered the 2011 Mutua Madrid Open
2011 Mutua Madrid Open
The 2011 Madrid Masters was played on outdoor clay courts at the Park Manzanares in Madrid, Spain from April 30 – May 8. It was the 10th edition of the event on the ATP and 3rd on the WTA...
as sixth seed. In the first two rounds, she defeated María José Martínez Sánchez
María José Martínez Sánchez
María José Martínez Sánchez is a Spanish professional tennis player. In singles, she has won five WTA singles titles, the 2009 Copa Sony Ericsson Colsanitas, the 2009 Swedish Open, the Premier 5 event, 2010 Internazionali BNL d'Italia, the 2011 Gastein Ladies and the 2011 Hansol Korea Open. She...
, 6–4, 7–6, and Iveta Benešová
Iveta Benešová
Iveta Benešová is a professional tennis player. She began playing tennis at age of 7 and turned professional in 1998 in Prague. She has won two WTA Tour events and one Grand Slam in mixed doubles partnering with Jürgen Melzer at the 2011 Wimbledon Championships.-2006–2008:In the 2006 Australian...
, 6–1, 6–4. In the third round, she defeated Roberta Vinci
Roberta Vinci
Roberta Vinci is an Italian tennis player. As of 29 August 2011, Vinci is ranked World No. 20, on the WTA Tour Rankings. Vinci has won thirteen WTA Tour titles, six in singles and seven in doubles....
, 2–6, 6–2, 6–1, coming back from a set deficit. She defeated Bethanie Mattek-Sands, 6–4, 3–6, 6–4, coming back from 3–4 and one break down in the deciding set. This victory marked her the first semifinals appearance in Madrid, where she eventually lost to Petra Kvitová
Petra Kvitová
Petra Kvitová is a Czech professional tennis player. She has won seven WTA singles titles. As of 31 October 2011, she is ranked World No. 2. Kvitová won the 2011 Wimbledon Championships and the 2011 WTA Tour Championships singles titles...
, 3–6, 1–6.
Li's resurgence continued in 2011 Internazionali BNL d'Italia
2011 Internazionali BNL d'Italia
The 2011 Internazionali BNL d'Italia was a tennis tournament, being played on outdoor clay courts at the Foro Italico in Rome, Italy. It was the 68th edition of the event and was classified as an ATP World Tour Masters 1000 event on the 2011 ATP World Tour and a Premier 5 event on the 2011 WTA Tour...
. Seeded fourth, she received a bye in the first round. She won her opening match against Lourdes Domínguez Lino
Lourdes Dominguez Lino
Lourdes Domínguez Lino is a Spanish professional female tennis player. On 11 September 2006 Domínguez Lino reached her career-high singles ranking: World No...
, 6–4, 6–2. She defeated Jarmila Gajdošová
Jarmila Gajdošová
Jarmila Gajdošová , known as Jarmila Groth from 2009 to 2011, is an Australian tennis player...
, 6–2, 6–1, and Gréta Arn
Gréta Arn
Gréta Arn is a professional tennis player from Hungary, and the current Hungarian No. 1. Arn turned professional in 1997....
, 6–3, 6–1, in the next two rounds en route to back-to-back semifinals on clay court. However, she lost to Samantha Stosur
Samantha Stosur
Samantha "Sam" Jane Stosur is an Australian professional tennis player. She won the 2011 US Open singles title and was a finalist at the 2010 French Open. Stosur is ranked World No. 6 and her career high in singles is World No. 4, achieved on 21 February 2011. She is a former world No...
, 7–6, 6–0.
Li won her first Grand Slam
Grand Slam (tennis)
The four Major tennis tournaments, also called the Slams, are the most important tennis events of the year in terms of world tour ranking points, tradition, prize-money awarded, strength and size of player field, and public attention. They are the Australian Open, the French Open, Wimbledon, and...
title and become the first Grand Slam singles champion born in an Asian country at the 2011 French Open
2011 French Open
The 2011 French Open was a tennis tournament played on outdoor clay courts. It was the 110th edition of the French Open, and the second Grand Slam event of the year...
. Seeded sixth, she defeated Barbora Záhlavová-Strýcová, Silvia Soler Espinosa
Silvia Soler Espinosa
Silvia Soler Espinosa is an Spanish tennis player. Her highest WTA singles ranking is 136, which she reached on June 6, 2011. Her career high in doubles is 255, which she reached on May 9, 2011.-External links:...
, Sorana Cîrstea
Sorana Cîrstea
Sorana Mihaela Cîrstea, is a Romanian tennis player. Her career high rank was World No. 23, achieved on 17 August 2009, after she reached the quarterfinals of the 2009 French Open and the semifinals of the 2009 Los Angeles Open.- Playing style :...
, ninth seed Petra Kvitová
Petra Kvitová
Petra Kvitová is a Czech professional tennis player. She has won seven WTA singles titles. As of 31 October 2011, she is ranked World No. 2. Kvitová won the 2011 Wimbledon Championships and the 2011 WTA Tour Championships singles titles...
, fourth seed Victoria Azarenka
Victoria Azarenka
Victoria Azarenka is a Belarusian professional tennis player. Her career high and current ranking is world no. 3, which she first achieved on 12 September 2011. She became the highest-ranked Belarusian player ever, surpassing Natasha Zvereva by two spots....
, seventh seed Maria Sharapova
Maria Sharapova
Maria Yuryevna Sharapova ,. is a Russian professional tennis player and a former world no. 1. A US resident since 1994, Sharapova has won 24 WTA singles titles, including three Grand Slam singles titles at the 2004 Wimbledon, 2006 US Open and 2008 Australian Open...
, and fifth seed and defending champion Francesca Schiavone
Francesca Schiavone
Francesca Schiavone is an Italian tennis player who turned professional in 1998. She won the 2010 French Open singles title, becoming the first Italian woman to win a Grand Slam event in singles. She was also runner-up at the 2011 French Open. As of 24 October 2011, Schiavone's ranking is World...
in the final.
After the match, Li Na was praised by the Chinese media, and her popularity throughout China was expected to grow significantly in the following months, as she became the first Chinese singles player ever to win a tennis Grandslam title. Following the French Open, Li reached a career high ranking of World No. 4.
As the second seed at the 2011 AEGON International
2011 AEGON International
The 2011 AEGON International was a combined men's and women's tennis tournament played on outdoor grass courts. It was the 36th edition of the event for the women and the 3rd edition for the men. It was classified as a WTA Premier tournament on the 2011 WTA Tour and as an ATP World Tour 250 series...
, Li fell in the second round to Daniela Hantuchová
Daniela Hantuchová
Daniela Hantuchová is a Slovak professional tennis player. She turned professional in 1999 and had her breakthrough year in 2002, when she won her first Tier I tournament and ended the year in the top 10.She is currently coached by Larri Passos...
.
Due to the withdrawal of Kim Clijsters
Kim Clijsters
Kim Antonie Lode Clijsters is a Belgian professional tennis player. As of 7 November 2011, Clijsters is ranked No. 13 in singles. Clijsters is a former World No. 1 in both singles and doubles....
, Li was the third seed at Wimbledon
2011 Wimbledon Championships
The 2011 Wimbledon Championships took place at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon, London, England, from 20 June to 3 July 2011. It was the 125th edition of the championships, and the third Grand Slam tournament of the year. It was played on grass courts and was part of the...
. She beat Alla Kudryavtseva
Alla Kudryavtseva
Alla Alexandrovna Kudryavtseva is a professional tennis player from Russia. She currently lives in Moscow, where she is coached by Nick Rybakov...
in the first round. She lost in the second round to eventual semifinalist Sabine Lisicki
Sabine Lisicki
Sabine Lisicki is a German professional tennis player of Polish background.Lisicki has won three WTA singles tournaments in her career and one doubles tournament . She reached the semifinals of the 2011 Wimbledon Championships and also reached the quarterfinals of the 2009 Wimbledon Championships...
of Germany, 6-3, 4-6, 6-8, even though she had two match points at 5–3 and served for the match twice at 5–4 and 6–5.
At the 2011 US Open
2011 US Open (tennis)
The 2011 US Open was a tennis tournament played on the outdoor hard courts at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows Park, of Queens, New York City, United States...
in August, Li lost to 53rd ranked Simona Halep
Simona Halep
Simona Halep is a world top-50 tennis player playing on the ITF Women's Circuit and the WTA Tour, and is currently the number-two ranked women's tennis player in Romania.-Career:...
of Romania in the first round, 2–6, 5–7. In September, Li parted ways with coach Mortensen.
At the China Open, Li fell to Romanian player Monica Niculescu
Monica Niculescu
Monica Niculescu is a Romanian tennis player. As of October 24, 2011 she is ranked No. 29 at the WTA Tour Singles Ranking. Her highest WTA ranking is currently her present ranking in singles, reached on 24 Oct 2011, and No. 24 in doubles, reached on June 7, 2010.Niculescu was born in Slatina,...
in straight sets, 4-6, 0-6. However, as a result of Vera Zvonareva
Vera Zvonareva
Vera Zvonareva is a professional tennis player from Russia. She was introduced to tennis at the age of six and turned professional in 2000. Her career high is World No. 2 by the WTA, and she is currently ranked as the World No. 7. Zvonarёva has won twelve WTA Tour singles titles and reached the...
and Samantha Stosur
Samantha Stosur
Samantha "Sam" Jane Stosur is an Australian professional tennis player. She won the 2011 US Open singles title and was a finalist at the 2010 French Open. Stosur is ranked World No. 6 and her career high in singles is World No. 4, achieved on 21 February 2011. She is a former world No...
's inability to go past the third round, she was able to qualify for the 2011 WTA Tour Championships
2011 WTA Tour Championships
The 2011 WTA Tour Championships was a tennis tournament to be played at Istanbul, Turkey from October 25 to October 30, 2011. It was the first time Turkey hosted the WTA Tour Championships. It was the 41st edition of the singles event and the 36th edition of the doubles competition...
. for the first time.
Li was placed in the White Group at the 2011 WTA Tour Championships
2011 WTA Tour Championships
The 2011 WTA Tour Championships was a tennis tournament to be played at Istanbul, Turkey from October 25 to October 30, 2011. It was the first time Turkey hosted the WTA Tour Championships. It was the 41st edition of the singles event and the 36th edition of the doubles competition...
in Istanbul, Turkey with Maria Sharapova
Maria Sharapova
Maria Yuryevna Sharapova ,. is a Russian professional tennis player and a former world no. 1. A US resident since 1994, Sharapova has won 24 WTA singles titles, including three Grand Slam singles titles at the 2004 Wimbledon, 2006 US Open and 2008 Australian Open...
, Victoria Azarenka
Victoria Azarenka
Victoria Azarenka is a Belarusian professional tennis player. Her career high and current ranking is world no. 3, which she first achieved on 12 September 2011. She became the highest-ranked Belarusian player ever, surpassing Natasha Zvereva by two spots....
and Samantha Stosur
Samantha Stosur
Samantha "Sam" Jane Stosur is an Australian professional tennis player. She won the 2011 US Open singles title and was a finalist at the 2010 French Open. Stosur is ranked World No. 6 and her career high in singles is World No. 4, achieved on 21 February 2011. She is a former world No...
. She beat Sharapova in her opening match 7-6, 6-4, but lost the other two matches, failing to make the semifinals.
Li Na lost two awards in final round for "Annual Breakthrough Award" to Blake Griffin and "Annual Award for best female tennis players" to Serena Williams conducted and honoured by ESPY Sports Award.
Singles: 2 (1 title, 1 runner-up)
| Outcome | Year | Championship | Surface | Opponent in Final | Score in Final |
| Runner-up | 2011 2011 Australian Open The 2011 Australian Open was a tennis tournament featuring six different competitions, and part of the 2011 ATP World Tour, the 2011 WTA Tour, ITF Junior Tour and the NEC Tour, as tournaments for professional, junior and wheelchair players were held... |
Australian Open Australian Open The Australian Open is the only Grand Slam tennis tournament held in the southern hemisphere. The tournament was held for the first time in 1905 and was last contested on grass in 1987. Since 1972 the Australian Open has been held in Melbourne, Victoria. In 1988, the tournament became a hard court... |
Hard |  Kim ClijstersKim Clijsters Kim Antonie Lode Clijsters is a Belgian professional tennis player. As of 7 November 2011, Clijsters is ranked No. 13 in singles. Clijsters is a former World No. 1 in both singles and doubles.... |
6–3, 3–6, 3–6 |
| Winner | 2011 | French Open | Clay |  Francesca SchiavoneFrancesca Schiavone Francesca Schiavone is an Italian tennis player who turned professional in 1998. She won the 2010 French Open singles title, becoming the first Italian woman to win a Grand Slam event in singles. She was also runner-up at the 2011 French Open. As of 24 October 2011, Schiavone's ranking is World... |
6–4, 7–6(7–0) |
See also
- Tennis in ChinaTennis in ChinaTennis in China is a rapidly growing sport that has received much private and public support, and has today become firmly entrenched in the Chinese consciousness as one of the most popular. Tennis is now the third-most popular sport on television in China, behind Association football and basketball...
- List of female tennis players
External links
- Li Na at Sina WeiboSina WeiboSina Weibo is a Chinese microblogging website. Akin to a hybrid of Twitter and Facebook, it is one of the most popular sites in China, in use by well over 30% of Internet users, with a similar market penetration that Twitter has established in the USA...