"Na Li"

Li Na (Chinese: 李娜; pinyin: Lǐ Nà born February 26, 1982) is the top ranked Chinese professional tennis player. Li has won 5 WTA and 19 ITF singles titles. Li won the 2011 French Open singles title, becoming the first player from an Asian country to win a Grand Slam in singles; she had already reached the final of the 2011 Australian Open, the first player from an Asian country to appear in a Grand Slam singles final. She is currently ranked World No. 11 and is the top Chinese player, out of 3 in the top 100.

Li's first tournament of 2010 was the 2010 ASB Classic 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 Hogstedt chose to leave her in order to coach Maria Sharapova.

Li played in 2011 Medibank International Sydney 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 on June 4. 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 Grand Slam 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.

Li started her new season in the 2012 Hopman Cup, where she won all three single rubbers against Marion Bartoli, Anabel Medina Garrigues and Jarmila Gajdosova. Her match with Marion Bartoli was a seesaw battle which saw Li come out as the winner in the final set, after recovering from a service break to close out the match 2–6 6–2 6–4. Li then faced Anabel Medina Garrigues in the next round, finally prevailing over the Spaniard with a 6–3, 6–1 win. This was Li's first win over the Spaniard in four meetings (Li lost in all three previous meetings). The Chinese player's performance in the 2012 Hopman Cup also saw her return to her lethal form after being plagued by losses and early round exits in almost all her tournaments (except New Haven, where she was able to reach the Semifinals) during the second half of 2011.

Li, seeded 4th, played in the Sydney to defend her title. She defeated Ekaterina Makarova, Chanelle Scheepers and -Lucie Šafářová to reach the semifinals. In the semifinal, she came back from one set down to defeat Petra Kvitová 1–6 7–5 6–2, the favorite to win the tournament. Had Kvitova won, she would have toppled Caroline Wozniacki and replaced her as the new world no. 1. In the final, Li failed to defend her title, losing the match to Victoria Azarenka 6–2 1–6 6–3.

Li began her Australian Open campaign by cruising through the early rounds of the tournament, handily defeating Ksenia Pervak 6–3, 6–1, Olivia Rogowska 6–2, 6–2 and Anabel Medina Garrigues 3–0 (after Garrigues retired due to an injured ankle sustained during the match), en route to meeting her 2011 Australian Open conqueror Kim Clijsters in the 4th round. After Clijsters rolled her ankle at 3–3, Li took the first set 6–4. Li held four match points at 6–2 in the second set tiebreak, but dropped six consecutive points to give Clijsters the second set. At 1–5 in the final set, Li began a resurgence and was able to close the gap to 4–5, but the Belgian managed to close out the match 6–4, 6–7, 4–6.

After the disappointing turnout of her Australian Open campaign, Li participated in the 2012 Fed Cup and won all three of her matches on home soil. She defeated Kei-Chen Chang and Nigina Abduraimova during the round robin stages to push China to the promotional play-offs against Kasakhstan. She next played Galina Voskoboeva, who proved a little tougher to crack but eventually surrendered to the French Open champion with a 6–1, 3–6, 6–1 scoreline. This win sealed the tie and secured China's spot in the World Group II play-offs.

Li then flew to Paris to contest the Open GDF Suez trophy in the indoor carpeted courts of the French capital, but retired against Tsvetana Pironkova in the first round of the tournament trailing 7–6(5), 3–2 due to a back injury she sustained during her Fed Cup matches.

The next tournament that Li Na played was the 2012 BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, California. Li got a 1st round bye and faced a rematch with Galina Voskoboeva in the second round, where the Chinese again emerged victorious in three sets (6–3, 3–6, 6–3). Li then faced countrywoman Zheng Jie where she has not had any wins in five career meetings. Li changed that record scoring her first win over Zheng with a convincing 6–1, 6–3 win. Next came Klara Zakopalova who was on a roll, upsetting Vera Zvonareva and Daniela Hantuchova on route meeting with Li in the fourth round. The Chinese comfortably brushed aside Zakopalova's challenge with a 6–1, 6–0 win, booking a place in the quarterfinals where she faced Angelique Kerber of Germany but lost 4–6, 2–6.

In the Sony Ericsson Miami Open 2012, Li Na, after a first round bye, rolled past Melinda Czink (7–5, 6–2), Iveta Benesova (7–5, 6–2) and Sabine Lisicki (3–6, 6–4, 6–2) to secure a slot in the quarterfinals. Li's win over Lisicki avenged her bitter loss to the big serving German in the previous year's second round of the Wimbledon Championships. She then faced world no. 2 Maria Sharapova in the quarterfinals and lost 3–6, 0–6. This marked the first time Li lost to Sharapova in their last four consecutive meetings, where the Chinese beat the Russian all in straight sets.

Li Na lost to Maria Sharapova in the finals of the Italian Open 2012, by 4–6 6–4 7–6 (7–5).

Li Na lost to Yaroslava Shvedova in the 4th Round of the French Open 2012, by 6–3 2–6 0–6.

Li Na lost to Sorana Cirstea in the 2nd Round of Wimbledon 2012, by 6-3 6-4.

Source :http://en.wikipedia.org