84 Facts About Li Na

1.

Li Na was born on 26 February 1982 and is a Chinese tennis player.

2.

Li Na achieved a career-high WTA ranking of world No 2 on 17 February 2014.

3.

Li Na became the first player representing an Asian country to appear in a Grand Slam singles final, finishing as the runner-up at the 2011 Australian Open.

4.

Li Na was born on 26 February 1982 in Wuhan, Hubei.

5.

Li Na's mother is Li Yanping ; her father, Li Shengpeng, was a professional badminton player and later worked as a sales rep for a Wuhan-based company.

6.

Li Na died from a rare cardiovascular disease when Li was fourteen.

7.

Li Na's coach did not tell her that her father had died for several days, thinking it would affect her game.

8.

Li Na's instructors taught tennis through negative reinforcement, which affected Li's confidence in later years.

9.

Li Na studied there for ten months and returned to China.

10.

Li Na turned professional in 1999 at the age of sixteen.

11.

Li Na later told CNN that she had felt sick everyday and didn't want her life to be only for tennis.

12.

Li Na could keep more of her winnings, with only twelve percent of her winnings going to the Chinese Tennis Association development fund as opposed to 65 percent previously.

13.

Li Na gave birth to her daughter Alisa in June 2015.

14.

Li Na's second child, a boy, was born on 23 December 2016.

15.

Li Na won all of her first seven ITF doubles tournaments she entered.

16.

Li Na began the year with a second-round performance at Gold Coast and a semifinal showing at Hobart, but losing to fellow Chinese player and eventual tournament champion Zheng Jie.

17.

Li Na then made her Grand Slam debut at the 2005 Australian Open, advancing to the third round with wins over Laura Granville and Shinobu Asagoe before losing to Maria Sharapova.

18.

Li Na returned with a career-best performance at Tier I events by reaching the semifinal at Berlin.

19.

Li Na reached the quarterfinals at Stockholm, and the fourth round at the US Open, where, as the 24th seed, she was beaten by eventual champion Maria Sharapova in two sets.

20.

Li Na then reached the quarterfinals at the China Open, where she was beaten by Svetlana Kuznetsova, and in Guangzhou.

21.

Li Na defeated Francesca Schiavone in the first round, Elena Dementieva in the second, saving five match points, and Katarina Srebotnik in the quarterfinal.

22.

Li Na followed her strong showing at the Medibank tournament with an equally strong showing at the Australian Open, where she advanced to the fourth round.

23.

Li Na 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 in three sets.

24.

Li Na then lost in the quarterfinals to Anna Chakvetadze.

25.

Li Na 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 Sprem in straight sets.

26.

Li Na returned to action at the International Women's Open in Eastbourne, winning one round before losing to Nadia Petrova.

27.

Li Na then contested Wimbledon, defeating Anastasia Rodionova before losing to Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.

28.

Li Na then reached the quarterfinals of the Premier event in Miami, where she beat qualifier Urszula Radwanska 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, sixth-seeded Vera Zvonareva in three sets.

29.

Li Na 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.

30.

Li Na then lost to unseeded, former world No 1 Maria Sharapova in the fourth round.

31.

Li Na started her grass-court season as the fourth seed at the Aegon Classic in Birmingham and advanced to the final with a win over Maria Sharapova in the semifinals.

32.

Li Na defeated Galina Voskoboeva in the first round and Olga Govortsova in the second round, but lost to No 11 Agnieszka Radwanska in the third round.

33.

Li Na then defeated Vera Dushevina before beating Kateryna Bondarenko.

34.

Li Na was defeated by Kaia Kanepi in the first round.

35.

Li Na fell to eventual champion and world No 17 Francesca Schiavone in the third round.

36.

Li Na defeated 4th seed Aravane Rezai in the semifinals, and 2nd seeded Maria Sharapova in the final to win the tournament.

37.

Li Na defeated seventh seed Agnieszka Radwanska 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.

38.

Li Na finished just outside the top 10 at world No 11.

39.

Li Na defeated surprise qualifier Bojana Jovanovski in the semifinals to advance to her eighth WTA final.

40.

Li Na defeated world No 1 Caroline Wozniacki in the semifinals to reach the final, after saving a match point in the second set.

41.

However, due to her disappointing results, Li Na sacked her husband as coach and hired Dane Michael Mortensen.

42.

Li Na then defeated Bethanie Mattek-Sands after recovering from a break down in the deciding set.

43.

Li Na won her opening match against Lourdes Dominguez Lino and defeated Jarmila Gajdosova and Greta Arn in the next two rounds en route to back-to-back semifinals on clay.

44.

Li Na was drawn in the White Group along with Maria Sharapova, Victoria Azarenka and Samantha Stosur.

45.

Li Na beat Sharapova in her opening match but lost her other two matches, failing to make the semifinals.

46.

Li Na finished the year as the world No 5 after a memorable yet very inconsistent season.

47.

Li Na was nominated for two ESPY Sports Award categories: the "Annual Breakthrough Award" and "Annual Award for best female tennis players".

48.

Li Na lost to Blake Griffin and Serena Williams, respectively.

49.

Li Na defeated Ekaterina Makarova, Chanelle Scheepers and Lucie Safarova to reach the semifinals.

50.

Li Na defeated Kei-Chen Changand and Nigina Abduraimova during the round robin stages to push China to the promotional play-offs against Kazakhstan.

51.

Li Na next played Galina Voskoboeva and won in three sets.

52.

Li Na made back-to-back quarterfinal appearances at the BNP Paribas Open and Sony Ericsson Open.

53.

Li Na began her title defence by defeating Sorana Cirstea, Stephanie Foretz Gacon and Christina McHale in the first three rounds before suffering a fourth round upset bid by qualifier Yaroslava Shvedova.

54.

Li Na fell out of the world top ten due to her French Open result.

55.

Li Na received a first round bye before seeing off home crowd favourite Eugenie Bouchard in the second round.

56.

Li Na then edged Venus Williams in the semifinal, before defeating fifth seed Angelique Kerber in the final; her fifth win against Kerber in six matches.

57.

Li Na received a bye in the first round, and won her second round match against Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova to book a meeting with former world No 1 Caroline Wozniacki in the third round.

58.

Li Na won the first set, but eventually lost the match.

59.

Li Na played compatriot Peng Shuai in the third round for a place in the quarters and emerged victorious in a topsy-turvy three set match lasting 2 hours and 28 minutes.

60.

Li Na lost her semifinal to Maria Sharapova; the Russian reeling off eight consecutive games to take the match.

61.

Li Na cruised to the final with straight-sets defeats over Mandy Minella, Julia Cohen, Bojana Jovanovski and Peng Shuai, putting her in prime position to claim her seventh WTA title.

62.

Li Na was pushed to the limit by Christina McHale but had little trouble with Ayumi Morita.

63.

Li Na met young American Madison Keys in the quarterfinals who proved to be a tougher challenge, with Li prevailing in three tight sets to book a semifinal showdown with world No 4, Agnieszka Radwanska.

64.

Li Na saved four match points on Radwanska's serve in the ninth game of the second set and three on her own serve in the tenth game.

65.

Li Na fell over a second time after the Australia Day fireworks break, not only twisting her left ankle once more but heavily knocking the rear of her head on the court, causing a momentary black-out.

66.

Li Na swept past qualifier Mirjana Lucic-Baroni in the second round, setting up an encounter with Petra Kvitova in the quarterfinals.

67.

Li Na disposed of Kvitova and then surprise semifinalist Bethanie Mattek-Sands both in straight sets to advance to the final for the first time, seeking her eighth career title.

68.

Li Na defeated Michaella Krajicek in the first round and Simona Halep in a rollercoaster three set match.

69.

Li Na then breezed past former world No 1 Jelena Jankovic in straight sets.

70.

Li Na then headed to Beijing to take part in the 2013 China Open as the home crowd favourite, defeating Daniela Hantuchova, Bojana Jovanovski and Sabine Lisicki in straight sets before falling to Petra Kvitova in the quarterfinals.

71.

Li Na won all three of her round robin matches against Sara Errani, Jelena Jankovic and Victoria Azarenka, thus qualifying for the semifinals for the first time.

72.

Li Na defeated wild-card and former world No 2 Vera Zvonareva in the first round, Nadiia Kichenok in the second round, Monica Niculescu in the quarterfinals and Annika Beck in the semifinals to reach her first final of the year and setting up the second all-Chinese final in WTA history in the process, where she defeated Peng Shuai in straight sets to win her eighth career singles title.

73.

Li Na made quick work of current junior top-2 players Ana Konjuh and Belinda Bencic in the first two rounds.

74.

Li Na then cruised past Ekaterina Makarova, Flavia Pennetta, and Eugenie Bouchard to reach her third Australian Open final, where she defeated first-time Grand Slam singles finalist and 20th seed Dominika Cibulkova in straight sets to claim her first Australian Open title, thus becoming the first East Asian and Asian Australian Open champion and fourth woman to win the title after being match point down.

75.

Li Na then suffered her first loss of the season to qualifier Petra Cetkovska in a tight three set contest in the third round.

76.

Li Na started her clay court campaign at the Madrid Open, where she recorded wins over Kirsten Flipkens and Zheng Jie in the first two rounds.

77.

Li Na ended her career ranked world No 6 by the Women's Tennis Association.

78.

Li Na has not only become a household name across China but a global icon, with her Sina Weibo microblogging having over 23 million followers as of October 2014.

79.

Li Na's perceived rebelliousness, exemplified by the rose tattoo on her chest and her previous run-ins with government sports programs, helped boost her popularity.

80.

Li Na was a nominee for the Laureus World Sportswoman of the Year award, alongside Serena Williams.

81.

Li Na rose to fame after her Roland Garros triumph, and since had signed seven endorsements in multiple-year terms.

82.

In 2019, Peter Chan directed a biopic about Li Na's life, based on her autobiography, with a release date yet unknown.

83.

Li Na boasted an exceptional backhand down-the-line, which was very effective at producing winners or setting up a weak reply from the opponent.

84.

Li Na had a see-saw rivalry with Maria Sharapova, with the latter winning their first five matches dating back to 2005, including Li's Grand Slam debut at the 2005 Australian Open.