Mulan posted on 18-9-2014 02:03 PM
lom ada official info..
Rafael Nadal is going to join along with World No. 1 Novak [color=rgb(0, 153, 0) !important]Djokovic in the 2014 China Open tournament, schedule to begin this month ending at the National Tennis Center in Beijing. Rafael Nadal should work[color=rgb(0, 153, 0) !important]hard to face top seed Novak Djokovic in the 2014 China Open, where both [color=rgb(0, 153, 0) !important]the players will fight hard to clinch the title ahead of the Shanghai Rolex [color=rgb(0, 153, 0) !important]Masters next month.
For close to fifteen years, we’ve been a part of each other’s lives. As a tennis player representing China on the global stage, I’ve trekked around the world playing hundreds of matches on the WTA tour, for China’s Fed Cup team, at the National Games and at several Olympic Games. You’ve always been there for me, supporting me, cheering me on, and encouraging me to reach my potential.
Representing China on the tennis court was an extraordinary privilege and a true honor. Having the unique opportunity to effectively bring more attention to the sport of tennis in China and all over Asia is something I will cherish forever. But in sport, just like in life, all great things must come to an end.
2014 has become one of the most significant years in my career and my life. This year was full of amazing highlights, which included winning my second Grand Slam singles title at the Australian Open and sharing the extraordinary experience with my country, my team, my husband and my fans. It was also a year filled with difficult moments, such as having to deal with the inevitable - making the decision to end my professional tennis career.
The amazing moment in Australia was filled with joy, happiness and extraordinary sense of accomplishment. The task of finally making a decision to hang up my racquet felt a lot more difficult than winning seven matches in a row in the Australian heat. It took me several agonizing months to finally come to the decision that my chronic injuries will never again let me be the tennis player that I can be. Walking away from the sport, effective immediately, is the right decision for me and my family.
Most people in the tennis world know that my career has been marked by my troubled right knee. The black brace I wear over it when I step on the court has become my tennis birth mark. And while the brace completes my tennis look, the knee problems have at times overtaken my life.
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. My previous three surgeries were on my right knee. My most recent knee surgery took place this July and was on my left knee. 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 of Wuhan. As hard as I tried to get back to being 100%, 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%.
Winning a Grand Slam title this year and achieving a ranking of World No.2 is the way I would like to leave competitive tennis. As hard as it’s been to come to this decision, I am at peace with it. I have no regrets. I was not supposed to be here in the first place, remember? Not many people believed in my talent and my abilities, yet I found a way to persevere, to prove them (and sometimes myself!) wrong.
I’ve succeeded on the global stage in a sport that a few years ago was in its infancy in China. What I’ve accomplished for myself is beyond my wildest dreams. What I accomplished for my country is one of my most proud achievements.
In 2008, there were two professional women’s tennis tournaments in China. Today, there are 10, one of them in Wuhan, my hometown. That to me is extraordinary! Serena Williams, Maria Sharapova and Venus Williams – with thirty Grand Slam singles titles among them - are coming to my hometown to play tennis for the fans of China! Just as I didn’t think I could ever be a Grand Slam champion, never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that some of the best female athletes in the world could play tennis in Wuhan, in my backyard.
My contributions to the growth of the sport in China are very special to me. But I don’t want to stop here. Together with IMG, my management company, we are putting together various plans on how we will continue to grow the sport of tennis in China. These plans include opening the Li Na Tennis Academy, which will provide scholarships for the future generation of Chinese tennis stars. I will also stay involved in the Right to Play, an organization dedicated to helping underprivileged children overcome challenges through sport. My philanthropic work will expand in scope as I continue to dedicate myself to helping those in need. What was once just a dream in China today is a reality.
On a personal side, I look forward to starting a new chapter of my life, hopefully having a family and reconnecting with those I did not have the luxury of spending a lot of time with while playing. I can’t wait to revisit all the amazing places I played tennis in and see the world through a new set of eyes. I look forward to slowing down and living my life at a new, slower, relaxed pace.
Tennis is an individual sport and as players, our job is to spend a lot of time focusing on ourselves. But no player can ever become a champion alone and nobody knows this better than me. There isn’t enough space here to thank everyone who has travelled on my journey with me and contributed to my success. But I must thank those that have stuck with me through the highs and the lows and have helped me become the person that I am today.
THANK YOU TO:
• My mother – for your never-ending support. Through the laughs and the tears, you’ve always been there for me.
• My father – you were taken away from me way too early and I haven’t been the same since. You’ve remained the sunshine in my life and I am who I am because of you.
• Jiang Shan – you’ve been by my side for 20 years. You are my everything and I am grateful to have shared my life with you.
• My first coaches Ms. Xia Xiyao and Ms. Yu Liqiao - for putting me on the tennis path.
• Madame Sun and the Chinese Tennis Association - thank you for being trailblazers for tennis in China.
• Mr. Hu Dechun and the Hubei Sports Bureau – for understanding me and supporting me through the years.
• Women’s Tennis Association – for your passion for women’s tennis and hard work growing it around the world.
• Mr. Chan Hongchang – for supporting me when I first decided to become a professional tennis player in 2008. You helped me make up my mind.
• Thomas Hogstedt – for introducing me to professional tennis.
• Michael Mortenson – for helping me win my first Grand Slam.
• Carlos Rodriguez – for pushing me beyond the limits I thought I could reach.
• Alex Stober – for taking care of me all of these years and pulling me together when I was falling apart.
• Erich Rembeck and Johannes Wieber – for finding a way to make me pain free, over and over again.
• Fred Zhang and the Nike team – you’ve been my guiding light, my support system and my biggest cheerleader. I will never forget it.
• To my agent Max Eisenbud and the entire IMG Team - for being the best management company in the world and for taking care of me every day.
• To all the sponsors that have supported me through every stage of my career.
• To my relatives, friends, and everyone who has helped me throughout my career – for always being there for me and for your never-ending support.
• To my fellow tennis players – for being a part of my journey all of these years. I have so much respect for all of you.
• To everyone in the media who’s covered my career and helped the growth of tennis in China and around the world.
• To the amazing tennis fans around the world – for your unyielding support of our sport and for playing every tennis match along with me.
• And lastly, to tennis fans in China – for getting on the bandwagon and staying on it! I am grateful to each and every one of you for pushing me to be my best, embracing me and loving me unconditionally. There is no limit to how far we can take the sport of tennis in China, together.
When I started playing tennis, I was just a neighborhood kid with an after-school hobby, not realizing what magical journey lay ahead of me. If I only knew what a vehicle the sport of tennis, along with my success, would become for my beloved China. While my journey hasn’t been easy, it has been rewarding. I’ve seen change happening in front of my eyes, young girls picking up tennis racquets, setting goals, following their hearts and believing in themselves. I hope that I’ve had the opportunity to inspire young women all over China to believe in themselves, to set their goals high and pursue them with vengeance and self-belief.
Whether you want to be a tennis player, a doctor, a lawyer, a teacher or a business leader, I urge you to believe in yourself and follow your dream. If I could do it, you can too! Be the bird that sticks out. With hard work, your dreams will come true.
BEIJING, China - Li Na's career was full of amazing memories and milestones, some of which may never be duplicated. Here's just a selection of the amazing things she accomplished...
1. She was the first Chinese to win a WTA title. On Sunday, October 3, 2004 - just a few weeks shy of exactly 10 years ago - Li won the inaugural Guangzhou International Women's Open to become the first Chinese to win a WTA title. Between 1995 and 1998 six Chinese players had reached WTA finals, but none of them could go a step further. "I'm trying to keep a balance and not get too excited about winning today," Li, who was 22 at the time, said afterwards. "I was nervous out there at the beginning and eager to win for the crowd." In the 10 years since, Zheng Jie, Yan Zi, Sun Tiantian and Zhang Shuai have all won WTA titles too.
2. She played in the first ever all-Chinese WTA final - and the second one too. Only twice have two Chinese players met in the final of a WTA event, and Li was part of both, at Oeiras in 2006 (falling to Zheng) and on home soil in Shenzhen this year (beating Peng Shuai).
3. She was China's first - and so far only - Top 10 player. Li broke the Top 10 for the first time on February 1, 2010, following a run to her first Grand Slam semifinal at the Australian Open. And it was a magical run too - after rallying from match point down to beat Agnes Szavay in the second round she took out Daniela Hantuchova, Caroline Wozniacki and Venus Williams in the next three rounds before falling to Serena Williams in two tie-breaks. The closest another Chinese player has come to the Top 10 is No.14 - Peng's career-high.
4. She was the first player from Asia, male or female, to reach a Grand Slam final. A year later, at the 2011 Australian Open, Li made it one step further and reached the final, saving match point to defeat Wozniacki in the semis before falling to Kim Clijsters in three tough sets. Only Japan's Kei Nishikori has repeated the feat - he was a runner-up at the US Open this year.
5. She was the first and so far only player from Asia, male or female, to win a Grand Slam title. At the 2011 French Open, Li took it to a whole new level, beating four Top 10 players in a row in the last four rounds - the last three in straight sets - to become Asia's first Grand Slam champion.
6. She was the best late bloomer in the Open Era. By winning the French Open in 2011 at age 29 years, 3 months and 9 days, Li was the fifth-oldest first-time Grand Slam champion in the Open Era, after a 30-year-old Ann Jones and fellow 29-year-olds Francesca Schiavone, Jana Novotna and Kerry Melville-Reid. But while none of those four women ever won a second Grand Slam title, Li did - as a 31-year-old at the Australian Open this year.
7. She had the best start of anyone to the 2014 season. Li won her first 13 matches of 2014, going 5-0 to win Shenzhen, 7-0 to win the Australian Open and then winning her opening match at Doha before falling to Petra Cetkovska. Not only was it the best start to 2014, but it's still the longest winning streak in 2014 - no one else has won more than 12 matches in a row this year, though Serena Williams goes into Wuhan having won 12 in a row...
8. She's the highest-ranked player from Asia, male or female, in tennis history. Japan's Kimiko Date-Krumm held the previous record, going as high as No.4 in the 1990s, but Li equaled that after winning the French Open in 2011, surpassed it after reaching the final of the WTA Finals in 2013 (rising to No.3) and setting the new bar after Doha this year (rising to No.2).
9. She was one of the highest-earning players of all time. Though she only broke the Top 10 for the first time four and a half years ago, Li is currently the 14th-highest-earning female tennis player of all time, with $16,709,074 in career prize money.
10. She gave the best trophy speeches. Li's speech after winning the Australian Open this year was particularly legendary - enjoy!
Post time 18-9-2014 01:49 PM
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