Li Na Announces Retirement From Tennis Officially in Beijing
Updated 4 pm, Sep 21: An emotional Li Na, China's greatest tennis star to date, announced her retirement in person on Sunday at the China National Tennis Center in northern Beijing, two days after indicating via Weibo she was done with competitive tennis on Friday.
Speaking on the first day of the China Open 2014 tennis tournament. Li answered questions about the knee injury that is ending her playing career and what she will do next, leaving the game at age 32.
Li attempted to make an opening statement before breaking down. She then took journalists' questions for 30 minutes.
"I leave tennis with no disappointment or regret. My heart told me that I could not keep going, and neither could my body," she said.
Li said her primary goal for her post-tennis life will be establishing a tennis school for children, something she mentioned ahead of any other plans.
"Of course I will establish a tennis school. Tennis is my love and I will do everything in my power to promote it and to give as many children as possible the chance to play as I can," she said. She said she would spend the next month or two with family. As for any plans to start a family, Li said only that would be based on future circumstances.
Li walks away from tennis less than a year after winning the Australian Open, her second major, a victory she predicted in an interview with the Beijinger. She had previously won the 2011 French Open. She remains the only Chinese woman to win a major, and the only citizen of the People's Republic of China of either sex to do so so far.
Chinese women's tennis has new hope in Peng Shuai, who made it to the semi-finals of the US Open this year.
Li's sudden retirement denied Beijing tennis fans one last chance to see Li play. In 2013, she bowed out of the tournament in the semi-finals. Earlier in the competition, she played a charity match against reigning China Open men's champion, Novak Djokovic, at an event that was part 10th anniversary celebration for the tennis tournament, part comedy act, and part sporting event. Promotional banners for the China Open featuring Li still fly around Beijing.
The Wuhan native will return there Sunday night, ahead of a media event Tuesday, before coming back to Beijing September 30 for a retirement ceremony at the China Open. The first-ever Wuhan Open, behind which Li was a key force, begins play Sunday,
Li's autobiography, My Life, was published in Chinese in 2013 and English earlier this year, both published by Penguin Group.
Tickets for the China Open are available from the tournament's official website.
Photo: Steven Schwankert/the Beijinger
