Li Na

For other people called Li Na, see Li Na.

Li Na

Li Na at the 2010 ASB Classic. Li Na at the Australian Open Players' Party (2016)
Country (sports)	China
Residence	Wuhan, Hubei, China
Height	1.72 m (5 ft 7+1⁄2 in)
Turned pro	1999
Plays	Right-handed; two-handed backhand
Prize money	$2,130,796
Singles
Career record	320–112
Career titles	2 WTA, 19 ITF
Highest ranking	No. 10 (February 1, 2010)
Current ranking	No. 10 (February 1, 2010)
Grand Slam singles results
Australian Open	SF (2010)
French Open	4R (2009)
Wimbledon	QF (2006)
US Open	QF (2009)
Doubles
Career record	120–49
Career titles	2 WTA, 16 ITF
Highest ranking	No. 54 (August 28, 2006)
Grand Slam doubles results
Australian Open	2R (2006, 2007)
French Open	2R (2006, 2007)
Wimbledon	2R (2006)
US Open	3R (2005)
Last updated on: October 5, 2009.

Li Na (Chinese: 李娜; pinyin: Lǐ Nà; born February 26, 1982 in Wuhan, Hubei), is a Chinese professional tennis player. She became the first Chinese player to reach the top 30 (in June 2006), top 20 (in August 2006) and top 10 (2010). Na was also the first Chinese tennis player to reach a Grand Slam quarterfinals, doing so at Wimbledon in 2006. She has been one of the most successful tennis players in the country's history and as of February 2009 is Asia and China's No. 1, with a world ranking of No. 10. By reaching the semi-finals of the 2010 Australian Open, Li became the first Chinese player to enter the top 10.

During the 2010 Australian Open, Li and compatriot Zheng Jie made history for becoming the first two Chinese players to reach the top four of a Grand Slam tournament simultaneously. The media dubbed the players as the two "Golden Flowers," and many heralded their feat as a breakthrough for Chinese tennis. Others have suggested that this feat signals the emergence of China as a tennis power.

Early life

From the central China metropolis of Wuhan, Li was a badminton player when she was 6 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.

Her father died when she was 14.

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.

She is noted in her playing style for quick reflexes and athleticism around the court and fast groundstrokes which she scatters unpredictably to all corners of the playing surface.

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 Ting Li; 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 that have interrupted her from playing for lengthy periods, and often preventing her from being highly ranked. 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.

Playing style

Li's game is characterized by her powerful groundstrokes, athleticism, and quick reflexes. Her shots are very strong and can be quite deep in the court, making Li an offensive baseliner. Li has fairly good foot speed and hits balls hard, sometimes hitting blatant winners down the line or cross court. Playing occasionally in doubles, Li is somewhat of a comfortable net player. Her backhand is her more powerful of the two groundstrokes, both of which she is known to scatter unpredictably to all corners of the playing surface. One of Li's weaknesses is her usual high number of unforced errors in a match; because she goes for her hard groundstrokes, she misses many as well. Li also lacks variety in her game, as she usually hits hard and flat and is rarely able to produce topspin or slices. Another weakness seen of Li is that she tends to get injured frequently thus forcing her not to play as often and consistently as possible. Many believe that if Li toned down the unforced errors in her play she would be among the top ten or even top five in the world.

1999–2003

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 Shenzhen and one at Westend, Belgium. She also won all seven of the 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 to love, 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, in addition to increasing her cumulative ITF singles title count 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 303 by the year's close.

She won her fifteenth 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) before suffering a complete absence from the circuit for the next 25 months. Sources vary as to the causes of this absence, with some citing "health reasons", but others asserting that she decided to take a break from professional tennis to study at university.

2004

In May 2004, however, she returned to the circuit unranked, and won her first twenty-six successive matches of the season to notch up three further $25,000 tournament wins and another $50,000 title, increasing her career singles title count to eighteen, only to have her winning streak finally snapped by Evgenia Linetskaya in the semi-final of the $50,000 Bronx tournament that August. But at least she won her sixteenth ITF doubles tournament at the same event, the seventeenth 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 the award of a wildcard entry into qualifying at the Beijing. Here, 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 score was 6–3, 6–7 (6), 6–7 (3), and the Russian afterwards praised her Chinese opponent, stating that she had felt as though she was up against a top-five 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-rated 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; and in so doing, she wrote her name into the history books as the first Chinese woman ever 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 nineteenth ITF singles title and twentieth overall singles title of her career, but losing in the quarter-finals 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 fifty-one singles matches and lost just four.

2005

2005 saw Na 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) at Gold Coast and a semi-final 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 quarter-final at Hyderabad (losing to Russian Maria Kirilenko). But 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 for the Chinese player 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 winning 6–3, 7–6.

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), 4–6, 3–6.

At Rabat in May, Li reached the semi-final stage, but further success proved ultimately elusive for her, as she retired hurt with a right ankle sprain from her clash against Zheng Jie with the score level at 3–3. Reaching this semi-final propelled her to a career-high world ranking of 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 Maria Vento-Kabchi, before suffering her second loss of the year to Nadia Petrova at the quarter-final stage.

It was Lindsay Davenport who proved her undoing in her next two tournaments, beating her 6–4, 6–4 in the first round of the US Open and 6–2, 6–2 at the semi-final 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 Alyona 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 quarter-finals 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 33 that she had reached in the Spring before her injury break to 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.

In January, the 23-year-old Chinese entered the Australian Open and was drawn to play Serena Williams in the first round. She took the match to a deciding set by whitewashing Williams in the second-set tie-break, but failed to sustain that momentum in the final set, finally yielding the match 3–6, 7–6 (7–0), 1–6 to the American.

Other early-round draws against high-ranked players towards the beginning of 2006 conspired with her recent first-round tie against Serena Williams at the Australian Open to take a heavy toll on Li's singles ranking, bringing it slipping down to No. 71 by the end of February.

At Gold Coast, she defeated Roberta Vinci in the first round only to lose to Top-20 player Flavia Pennetta in Round Two. Although she avenged this defeat in the first round at Sydney the very next week, ousting the Italian 6–4, 6–1, she lost heavily to Kim Clijsters in the second round.

An easier draw on paper faced her at Pattaya in early February, but it was not to be a good week for Li, as she lost in three sets to Canadian qualifier Aleksandra Wozniak in the first round.

A second successive first-round defeat, this time to the opposition of Daniela Hantuchová, followed in Dubai, although the score-line of 6–3, 4–6, 6–7 demonstrated that the match was close despite the difference of more than fifty places between the two players' rankings.

A repeat match with Hantuchová in the second round at the Qatar Total Open in Doha the following week saw the Slovak this time taking a commanding lead, 6–4, 5-1, but Li saved several match points and broke back twice en route to a second-set tie-break, which she won, before running away with the third set 6–1. Although Li's next opponent in this tournament Nadia Petrova, who was destined to win the entire tournament, had the upper hand for the third time in three head-to-head contests, narrowly prevailing 6–4, 6–4, the fact of Li Na reaching the quarter-final stage at Doha, after earlier beating Vera Zvonareva, spared her a further decline in her world ranking and brought it back up slightly to No. 70.

At Indian Wells in March, she started with a comfortable 6–1, 6–3 win over former Top-40 player Anne Kremer of Luxembourg (despite ceding one break of service), then defeated Czech World No. 39 Iveta Benešová by the one-sided scoreline of 6–1, 6–0 in Round Two. She was 6–2, 5–1 up against Vania King in Round Three before the American wildcard won three successive games, forcing Li to close out the closely-tied second set 6–4, having lost her own serve twice during the set. In the fourth round, she played Russian World No. 8 Elena Dementieva for the first time, and found herself struggling to hold her own service throughout the match, as she was broken five times while breaking Dementieva's serve just twice, and was ultimately defeated 6–3, 6–2, although overall she won 50 points against the Russian's 63. Still, she earned 45 ranking points from the tournament; and with none to defend from the previous March, this assured her of a rise of ten places back up to World No. 60.

The Miami draw saw her scheduled to be pitted in the second round against Maria Sharapova, the winner at Indian Wells, who in their only previous meeting had crushed her for the loss of just two games at the Australian Open in 2005. In Round One, Li easily overcame Akiko Morigami 6–1, 6–2, allowing her to take home 19 ranking points. But against the Russian No. 1 she went down 2–6, 4–6. In the second set, she broke Sharapova's service twice, but ultimately lost her own three times, and thus the match.

At Estoril in May, Li defended her previous year's final-round performance with a solid run of straight-sets victories, including wins over Gisela Dulko and clay-court specialist Émilie Loit, only to retire hurt at one-set all during a close-fought final against her compatriot Zheng Jie, with the score at 7–6 (5), 5–7.

With her previous year's points from Rabat cut from under her feet as the tournament was scheduled several weeks later this year and clashed with a higher-level event in which she chose to participate instead, Li Na found herself ranked at No. 61, down five places on the beginning of the year, as the defence of her results in early 2005 came to its end.

Her second injury-related retirement in two successive meetings against Zheng would not prove to prevent Li from continuing to compete over the remainder of the Spring, a period in which she had no ranking points to defend at all, and which therefore presented her with a ready opportunity to advance back upwards in the rankings.

She returned with a career-best performance at Tier I events the very next week by reaching the semi-final at Berlin. On the way there, she achieved her first ever victory over a current Top-10-ranked player as she ousted Patty Schnyder for the first time in their three head-to-head meetings, 2–6, 7–6, 7–6, at the quarter-final stage. But this match left her with a muscle sprain, and she subsequently suffered an uncharacteristically easy loss to Nadia Petrova in the semi-final, 1–6, 0–6. Nonetheless, her performance at this high-level tournament propelled her ranking back up inside the WTA Top 40 for the first time that year, leaving her ranked #39, and also elevated her up inside the Top 20 in the 2006 WTA race to the championships.

At Strasbourg in late May, she scored a second-round victory over Top-30 player Nathalie Dechy of France, 6–3, 7-6, but although she then took an early lead against rival-turned-doubles-partner Jelena Janković in Round Three, she failed to sustain it, losing to Janković for the first time in three career meetings. Her ranking improved just one place to 38th.

In her first ever appearance at Roland Garros, she toughed out hard-fought victories against perennial campaigner Amy Frazier and young Russian Anna Chakvetadze to earn herself a third round spot, then put up an ultimatey unsuccessful fight against eventual finalist Svetlana Kuznetsova, going down by a final scoreline of 3–6, 6–7. She emerged from the tournament with a personal best WTA ranking of 32, as several players previously ranked comfortably above her failed to adequately defend their ranking points from the previous year.

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, this time by a scoreline of 2–6, 4–6. But her third consecutive third-round performance in tournaments where she had no ranking points to defend from the previous year was enough to lift her ranking to 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 on from her first at Tashkent.

An early retirement against Alyona 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.

Taking advantage of her hard-earned Wimbledon seeding, she cruised to the third round with comfortable straight-sets victories over respected grass-court players Virginie Razzano and recent Birmingham semi-finalist Meilen Tu to set up her second consecutive third-round Grand Slam tie against Svetlana Kuznetsova.

After two close defeats in two career head-to-heads against Kuznetsova, Li Na finally scored her first victory over the 5th-seeded Russian World No. 6 almost two years after squandering match points against her in their first encounter. To seal this breakthrough win, which was also her second career victory over a current Top-10-ranked player, Li had to fight back from a set down, but ultimately vanquished the Russian 3–6, 6–2, 6–3, so becoming the second Chinese player to reach the fourth round (last 16) at a Grand Slam tournament (the first having been Jie Zheng at the 2004 French Open).

She then went on to defeat 10th-seeded Czech player Nicole Vaidišová 4–6, 6–1, 6–3 in the fourth round, to reach her first Grand Slam quarter-final, surpassing Zheng's achievement by becoming the first Chinese player ever to reach any Grand Slam quarter-final. With 174 ranking points to her credit from this performance, and none to defend, Li rose to a new career high WTA ranking of 20 following the tournament, even though she ultimately lost her quarter-final match against Kim Clijsters in two close sets, 4–6, 5–7, despite serving for the second set at 5–2.

At the US Open later that summer, she reached the fourth round, beating Mary Pierce 4–6, 6–0 6–0, before losing to the eventual champion Maria Sharapova, 4–6, 2–6.

2007

Li Na started the year by participating a Tier III event in Gold Coast, Australia where she reached the second round. The week after, she competed in Sydney (Medibank International). 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 1–6, 6–1, 7–5, 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 number 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, number 6 Martina Hingis. Due to the 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 4–6, 6–3, 6–0, committing 69 unforced errors. Despite the loss, the tournament was a success for Na, as it marked the third straight time in a slam that she advanced to the fourth round or later.

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 6–2, 6–4, converting zero 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 7–5, 4–6, 6–1. 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 quarter-finals to Anna Chakvetadze 4–6, 7–5, 6–2.

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 twenty player Karolina Šprem in straight sets 6–3, 6–3. At the Family Circle Cup held in Charleston, South Carolina, she fell in the third round to Anabel Medina Garrigues 6–4, 7–5.

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

Li Na had not played a professional match in half a year and had resultantly slipped to 29th 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 Syndey after suffering a right knee injury. Her failure to defend her previous year's semi-final performance at this event cost her 125 ranking points, which dipped her ranking back down to No. 30 in the rankings list for the week beginning 14 January.

Going in to 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 (who last year slipped down from the Top 100 to the bottom of the Top 200 before a late-season winning streak propelled her suddenly back up to within the Top 150) 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 semi-finals 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 semi-finals 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(5). This tournament brought her back up within the Top 30 at World No. 29.

The very 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 Two, 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(7), 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.

Li Na hitting a forehand at the 2008 Wimbledon Championships.

In the quarter-finals, 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 semi-finals, where she played Vera Zvonareva of Russia, 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. With 210 ranking points undefended from her semi-final performance at Indian Wells in 2007, her ranking is calculated to slip back down to the bottom end of the top 30 in the week beginning March 24, 2008.

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 6–2, 6–4 to Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.

At the Beijing Olympics, Li faced World No. 3 Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia in her opening match. She disposed of her Russian opponent 7–6(5), 6–4, displaying a second victory among their five encounters. She then defeated Ayumi Morita 6–2, 7–5 in her second round match. Li advanced to the quarterfinals by beating Kaia Kanepi of Estonia, 4–6, 6–2, 6–0, in the third round. She went on to defeat one of the favourites, Venus Williams, in the quarterfinals 7–5, 7–5. Li was trailing 1–4 in the first set but then managed to strengthen her game to win in straight sets. She is also the only remaining Chinese singles player left in the women's draw, as Zheng Jie was defeated 6–4, 6–3 by Dinara Safina in the third round. Li lost her semi-final match to sixth seed Dinara Safina 7–6(3), 7–5. She then was defeated in the bronze final by Russia's Vera Zvonareva, 6–0, 7–5.

At the US Open, Li faced No. 24 Shahar Peer in her opening match. After losing the first set, Li quickly took control of the match and won 2–6, 6–0, 6–1. In the second and third round, She defeated Sara Errani of Italy 4–6, 6–2, 6–0 and Ekaterina Makarova of Russia 6–1, 4–6, 6–2 respectively, before falling 2008 Beijing Olympics gold medalist Elena Dementieva in the fourth round 6–4, 6–1. Li struggled with 3 winners and 28 unforced errors.

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 became only the second Chinese player to defeat a world number one player, following Zheng Jie's victory over Ana Ivanović at 2008's Wimbledon.

2009

At the 2009 US Open

Li withdrew from both the inaugural Brisbane International, 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), 6–2. In the second round, she lost to second-seeded Jelena Janković 6–0, 3–6, 6–2.

In the first round of the Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships, Li lost in the opening round to Russian Elena Vesnina 1–6, 6–4, 6–4.

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(5), 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(3). 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 quarter-finals 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 quarter-final 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(1), 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-number one Maria Sharapova in the fourth round, 4–6, 6–0, 4–6. after this impressive result she jumped 6 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 with a 0–6, 6–7 in the final.

Na is 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 #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 to lower ranked Urszula Radwanska of Poland.

No. 18 seed 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 Alize 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(7), 4-6, 7-6(4), though she failed to serve for the match twice in the last set. Li lost in the semifinals to Jelena Jankovic 6-4, 6-3.

Li finished the year at world number 15, her career high year-end ranking.

2010

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 6–1 6–3. In the Medibank International she defeated 4th seed Caroline Wozniacki 2–6 6–3 6–2. She lost to Flavia Pennetta in the second round, 2–6, 6–7(4).

Li was seeded 16th at the 2010 Australian Open. She defeated World No. 4 Caroline Wozniacki in the 4th 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(4), 7-5 in her first ever Australian Open quarterfinal, and only her third ever Grand Slam quarterfinals. In the semi-finals she lost to Serena Williams 7-6(4), 7-6(1). As a result of this performance, Li was the first Chinese woman ever to be ranked in the Top 10 of womens professional tennis.

WTA Tour finals (8)

Singles (6)

Wins (2)

Legend: Before 2009	Legend: Starting in 2009
Grand Slam (0)
WTA Championships (0)
Tier I (0)	Premier Mandatory (0)
Tier II (0)	Premier 5 (0)
Tier III (2)	Premier (0)
Tier IV & V (0)	International (0)

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent in final	Score in final
1.	October 3, 2004	Guangzhou, China	Hard	Martina Suchá	6–3, 6–4
2.	January 5, 2008	Gold Coast, Australia	Hard	Victoria Azarenka	4–6, 6–3, 6–4

Runner-ups (4)

Legend: Before 2009	Legend: Starting in 2009
Grand Slam (0)
WTA Championships (0)
Tier I (0)	Premier Mandatory (0)
Tier II (0)	Premier 5 (0)
Tier III (0)	Premier (0)
Tier IV & V (2)	International (2)

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent in final	Score in final
1.	May 1, 2005	Estoril, Portugal	Clay	Lucie Šafářová	6–7(4), 6–4, 6–3
2.	May 7, 2006	Estoril, Portugal	Clay	Zheng Jie	6–7(4), 7–5 retired
3.	March 8, 2009	Monterrey, Mexico	Hard	Marion Bartoli	6–4, 6–3
4.	June 14, 2009	Birmingham, England	Grass	Magdaléna Rybáriková	6–0, 7–6

Doubles (2)

Wins (2)

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Partner	Opponents in Final	Score in Final
1.	June 18, 2000	Tashkent, Uzbekistan	Hard	Li Ting	Iroda Tulyaganova Anna Zaporozhanova	3–6, 6–2, 6–4
2.	June 18, 2006	Birmingham, United Kingdom	Grass	Jelena Janković	Jill Craybas Liezel Huber	6–2, 6–4

ITF Circuit (35)

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent in final	Score in final
1.	June 13, 1999	Shenzhen, China	Hard	Yang-Jin Chung	6–2, 6–3
2.	June 20, 1999	Shenzhen, China	Hard	Yang-Jin Chung	6–0, 6–0
3.	August 29, 1999	Westende, Belgium	Clay	Daphne van de Zande	6–3, 6–1
4.	January 23, 2000	Boca Raton, Florida	Hard	Sandra Cacic	6–4, 6–3
5.	March 26, 2000	Nanjing, China	Hard	Marie-Eve Pelletier	7–6, 6–2
6.	April 2, 2000	Nanjing, China	Hard	Ding Ding	6–2, 6–2
7.	April 16, 2000	Shenyang, China	Hard	Sun Tiantian	6–0, 6–4
8.	April 23, 2000	Dalian, China	Hard	Li Ling Chen	6–4, 6–4
9.	May 14, 2000	Seoul, South Korea	Clay	Eun-Ha Kim	6–3, 7–6
10.	May 28, 2000	Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam	Hard	Wynne Prakusya	6–1, 6–2
11.	July 9, 2000	Civitanova, Italy	Clay	Emmanuelle Gagliardi	6–3, 4–6, 7–6
12.	April 22, 2001	Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam	Hard	Roberta Vinci	6–4, 7–5
13.	July 29, 2001	Guangzhou, China	Hard	Liu Nannan	6–1, 6–2
14.	February 10, 2002	Midland, U.S.	Hard Indoors	Mashona Washington	6–1, 6–2
15.	May 23, 2004	Beijing, China	Hard	Seiko Okamoto	6–4, 6–4
16.	May 30, 2004	Tongliao, China	Hard	Bahia Mouhtassine	6–4, 2–6, 7–6
17.	June 6, 2004	Wulanhaote, China	Hard	Liu Nannan	6–0, 6–0
18.	June 13, 2004	Beijing, China	Hard Indoors	Suchanun Viratprasert	6–2, 6–4
19.	October 31, 2004	Shenzhen, China	Hard	Sun Tiantian	6–3, 4–6, 6–2

Singles performance timeline

NM5				means an event that is neither a Premier Mandatory nor a Premier 5 tournament.

To prevent confusion and double counting, information in this table is updated only once a tournament or the player's participation in the tournament has concluded. This table is current through the 2010 Australian Open.

Tournament	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	Career SR	Career Win-Loss
Grand Slam Tournaments
Australian Open	A	3R	1R	4R	3R	A	SF	0 / 5	12–5
French Open	A	A	3R	3R	A	4R	-	0 / 3	7–3
Wimbledon	A	A	QF	A	2R	3R	-	0 / 3	7–3
U.S. Open	A	1R	4R	A	4R	QF	-	0 / 4	10–4
SR	0 / 0	0 / 2	0 / 4	0 / 2	0 / 3	0 / 3	0 / 1	0 / 15	N/A
Win-Loss	0–0	2–2	9–4	5–2	6–3	9–3	5-1	N/A	36–15
Olympic Games
Summer Olympics	A	Not Held			SF	NH		0 / 1	4–2
Year-End Championship
WTA Tour Championships	A	A	A	A	A	A		0 / 0	0–0
WTA Premier Mandatory Tournaments
Indian Wells	A	A	4R	SF	A	4R		0 / 2	10–3
Miami	A	A	2R	QF	A	QF		0 / 3	8–3
Madrid	Not Held					2R		0 / 1	1–1
Beijing	Not Tier I					3R		0 / 1	1–1
WTA Premier 5 Tournaments
Dubai	Not Tier I					1R		0 / 1	0–1
Rome	A	A	A	A	A	1R		0 / 1	0–1
Cincinnati	Not Tier I					A		0 / 0	0–0
Montreal/Toronto	A	3R	1R	A	A	A		0 / 2	2–2
Tokyo	A	A	A	2R	1R	SF		0 / 3	5-3
Former WTA Tier I Tournaments (currently neither Premier Mandatory nor Premier 5 events)
Charleston	A	A	A	3R	A	NM5		0 / 1	1–1
Moscow	A	A	1R	A	1R			0 / 2	0–2
Doha1	Not Tier I				SF	Not Held		0 / 1	4–1
Berlin	A	A	SF	2R	A			0 / 2	5–2
Zürich1	A	A	A	A	Not Tier I			0 / 0	0–0
San Diego1	A	A	A	A	Not Held		NM5	0 / 0	0–0
Career Statistics
Tournaments Won	1	0	0	0	1	0	0	N/A	2
Runner-up	0	1	1	0	0	2	0	N/A	4
Overall Win-Loss	6–1	23–14	40–21	23–13	29–15	26–13	6–3	N/A	152–782
Year End Ranking	80	57	21	29	23	15		N/A	N/A

• A = did not participate in the tournament
• Q = Qualifying round loss

Green background for wins. Yellow background for top-8 (quarter finals up to finalist).

• ¹As of 2008, Doha is a Tier I tournament, replacing San Diego and Zurich.
• ² If ITF women's circuit participations are included, overall win-loss record stands at 316-111.

See also

• Chinese tennis players
• Tennis in China

External links

• Li Na at the Women's Tennis Association
• Li Na ITF Tennis profile
• Li Na, comprehensive sports profile - historical information, news, pictures, video, and personal data