Only Sports Stars: Li Na Female Tennis Player From China

Saturday, August 27, 2011

Li Na Female Tennis Player From China

Li Na (born February 26, 1982) is a Chinese professional tennis player. Li has won 5 WTA and 19 ITF singles titles. She will be ranked World No. 4 by WTA on June 6, 2011.
In January 2011, Li reached the singles final at the Australian Open, where she was defeated by Kim Clijsters in 3 tight sets. In June 2011, Li won the 2011 French Open by defeating the defending champion Francesca Schiavone in the final, and became the first national of an Asian country to win a Grand Slam singles title.
Li Na was born on February 26, 1982, in Wuhan, Hubei, China. Her father Li Shengpeng (李盛鹏) was an amateur badminton player who could not turn professional because of the Cultural Revolution; he died from cardiovascular disease when Li Na was 14.
When Li was 6 years old, she became a badminton player, but her coach kept noticing that she looked as if she were playing tennis. By the time she was 8, her coach asked her parents if she could switch to tennis, which she did at the age of 9. 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 at Huazhong University of Science and Technology, where she completed her bachelor degree in journalism eventually in 2009. The Chinese media mostly cited the conflict between her and the national team as the reason she quit. Some reported that the relationship between her and her teammate, future husband Jiang Shan (姜山), was opposed by the national team, some reported that her national coach Yu Liqiao (余丽桥) was too strict towards her and her teammates, which was claimed by Li afterwards, others reported that she asked for a personal coach rather than a shared coach but was rejected.
However, Li returned to the national team in 2004. Jiang Shan married Li and became her personal coach in 2006. In 2008, Li quit the national team, becoming a free player. As a member of the team, she had to pay 65 percent of her prize money to the government. She now pays 8 to 12 percent.

Li Na Female Tennis Player Image