Statbox: Asian trailblazer Li Na

Following is a factbox on twice Grand Slam champion Li Na, who announced her retirement from tennis on Friday

>>Reuters
Published : 19 Sept 2014, 11:41 AM
Updated : 19 Sept 2014, 11:41 AM

Making her name

Born Feb 26, 1982 in Wuhan, China

Like many elite Chinese athletes, Li was hand-picked to train with the country's Soviet-style sports system aged nine but was initially identified as a badminton player before being moved into tennis.

Li spent much of her career clashing with China's tennis administration over pay, training and national duty, and gave up the game for a period to study media at university.

Chinese Trailblazer

She returned to the tour in 2004 to capture the first WTA title for China in Guangzhou, and became the first Chinese to reach a Grand Slam quarter-final at Wimbledon in 2006.

Li struggled with injuries during 2007-08, and missed out on a bronze medal at the Beijing Olympics, but began to play her best tennis from 2009 after being permitted to manage her own career and training with a handful of other top women players in a landmark decision by China's tennis association.

She advanced to a second grand slam quarter-final at the 2009 US Open, and a maiden major semi-final at the 2010 Australian Open, which made her the first Chinese player to crack the top 10.

She became the first Chinese to reach a Grand Slam singles final at the 2011 Australian Open, losing to Kim Clijsters.

Two Grand Slam titles

The late-blooming Li captured the 2011 French Open title at the age of 29, where she defeated Francesca Schiavone to become the first Asian to win a Grand Slam singles title.

Aged 31, she captured a second Grand Slam title at the 2014 Australian Open by defeating Slovakia's Dominika Cibulkova. The win spurred Li to make one of the most hilarious victory speeches in tennis when she thanked her long-suffering husband Jiang Shan for "fixing the drinks" and her agent for "making me rich".

The following month she achieved the highest ever singles ranking achieved by an Asian when she climbed to number two in the world.

Global Brand

In May 2013, Li graced the cover of Time magazine featuring the 100 most influential people in the world.

She was also named in the Top 100 'highest paid athletes' for 2013 by Forbes magazine.