Li Na officially bids farewell, announces retirement

China’s Li Na has officially announced her retirement from professional tennis after posting a statement on social media sites on Friday. This ended a week’s worth of speculations that she would be bidding farewell to the sport. The announcement came ahead of the inaugural Wuhan Open, a Premier 5 tournament which takes place in Li Na’s hometown.

The two-time Grand Slam champion has not competed since her third round defeat at Wimbledon last July and pulled out of the North American hardcourt season due to recurring knee injury.

“Most people in the tennis world know that my career has been marked by my troubled right knee,” Li wrote. “After four knee surgeries and hundreds of shots injected into my knee weekly to alleviate swelling and pain, my body is begging me to stop the pounding.”

“After a few weeks of post-surgery recovery, I tried to go through all the necessary steps to get back on the court. While I’ve come back from surgery in the past, this time it felt different.”

“One of my goals was to recover as fast as I could in order to be ready for the first WTA tournament in my hometown. As hard as I tried to get back to being 100 percent, my body kept telling me that, at 32, I will not be able to compete at the top level ever again. The sport is just too competitive, too good, to not be 100 percent.”

Li Na became the first Chinese player to win a WTA title (Guangzhou in 2004), became the first to reach a Grand Slam singles quarterfinal back in Wimbledon 2006, the first to make it to the world’s top 20. She was also the first player from her country to make it to a Grand Slam singles final (Australian Open 2011) and the first to win a Grand Slam singles title (French Open 2011).

“I’ve succeeded on the global stage in a sport that a few years ago was in its infancy in China,” she said. What I’ve accomplished for myself is beyond my wildest dreams. What I accomplished for my country is one of my most proud achievements.”

Her second Grand Slam singles triumph at the Australian Open earlire this year catapulted her ranking to a career-best world number two back in January.

The WTA released a statement regarding Li Na’s retirement.

“Li Na has been a fun, powerful, and wonderful player on the WTA tour and, along with her fans, I am sad to hear that she has retired,” WTA chief executive Stacey Allaster said. “In addition to her amazing tennis abilities and her warm and humorous personality, she is a pioneer who opened doors to tennis for hundreds of millions of people throughout China and Asia.”

“It’s hard to be a household name in a nation with 1.4 billion people, but that’s what Li Na is.”