US Open 2011 Women's Champion? – Part 4: Li Na
Na Li was born into a Chinese family on the 26th of February, 1982, in Wuhan, China. Following her father’s foots steps, she started playing badminton at the age of six, and however, at the age of 9 she made the transition
from badminton to tennis. Following years of training and polishing her skills, she eventually became a professional player in 1999 and in 2000 played her first three WTA main draws. At Tashkent and Olympics she failed in first round to Vicario Sanchez but
reached the second round at Shanghai. However, she won one WTA doubles title, won eight singles title and six doubles titles on the ITF circuit.
From 2000 to 2008 Li progressed steadily but in 2008 she was recovering from an injury for 6 months, however, when she came back she won her second WTA title at the Gold Coast in her first week. She was a semi finalist in four
events, At Antwerp, Doha, Olympics and Luxembourg and by the year’s end she was in the top 30.
Her first top-20 season was in 2009, a runner-up at Monterrey and in Birmingham she lost to Rybarikova in the final and was a semi finalist at the Pan Pacific held in Tokyo.
By 2010 she finished number 11 and won her third WTA title at Birmingham when she outshone Maria Sharapova in the final. At the Australian Open she was a semi finalist and saw new heights of her career when after the Australian
Open she rose from world number 17 to world number four and became the first Chinese to ever enter the top ten ranks.
Li has shown tremendous hard work and consistency in her performance. In 2011 she finally won her first grand slam title at Roland Garros during the French Open, where she out-powered Francesca Schiavone. Although, in Wimbledon she didn’t shine and her fame
was cut short in the second round by Sabine Lisicki, at the Australian Open, which also a hard court event, she was a runner up because she lost the final to Kim Clijsters.
The 29-year-old has contested in 7 hard court events and achieved her fourth WTA title at Sydney when she avenged her loss against Kim Clijsters. A semi finalist at the Australian Open, she then saw early round exits from most
of the remaining events. Nevertheless, the Chinese has competed in 18 matches on hard courts out of which she has won 12 and lost only 6.
World number 5 has contested in 5 US opens; in 2000 she was unable to make it to the main draw of the event and after that she didn’t partake until 2005. In 2005 she qualified to the main draw of the event only to lose at the hands
of Lindsay Davenport. She then entered the competition in 2006 but was unsuccessful in the fourth round and lost to Maria Sharapova. Unable to play in 2007, in 2008 she again saw a fourth round loss but this time to the Russian Elena Dementieva. Finally in
2009 she was a quarter-finalist only to be defeated by Kim Clijsters. 2010 saw an extremely poor performance from Li and she had an early round departure.
Li has, as good a chance as any of the other top players especially with her kryptonite Kim Clijsters not contesting due to an injury but she still should be on the lookout for Maria Sharapova, Vera Zvonareva and none other than
the 13 time grand slam winner Serena Williams.
Nevertheless, in her professional career Li has contested in 531 matches out of which she has won 385. The 29 year-old Chinese reached her career high ranking of world number 4 on the 6th of June 2011. She has also made
history by being the first Asian to ever win a grand slam title and she tied with Japan’s Kimiko Date-Krumm as the equal highest ranked player from Asia.
Disclaimer: The ideas expressed in the article are the writer’s own personal views and have nothing to do with bettor.com’s editorial policy.
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