China's two-time grand slam champion Li Na announced her retirement from the sport on Friday on the eve of a new WTA event organised in her home city.
The 32-year-old, who broke all barriers for women in Chinese sport and earned a world-class endorsement fortune in the process, had not played since Wimbledon due to a knee injury.
In addition, the emotional Li lost the services of Argentine coach Carlos Rodriguez under orders from the Chinese tennis club which employs him and wanted to see him full-time on court and not travelling with Li on the WTA.
Li became Asia's first Grand Slam singles champion as she won Roland Garros in 2011 and the Australian Open in January. Her number two ranking is the best ever achieved by a player from Asia.
Li ends her career after 15 years in the sport. "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," said WTA chairman Stacey Allaster.
"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."
Li established several breakthroughs for Chinese tennis besides her grand slam title triumphs.
She was first to win a WTA singles title (2004 Guangzhou), first to win a WTA Premier title (2011 Sydney), first to reach a grand slam singles quarter-final (2006 Wimbledon); first to compete in singles at the WTA Finals (2011-13, finishing runner-up to Serena Williams on her most recent appearance).
She was also the first to crack the singles Top 20 (August 14, 2006), Top 10 (February 1, 2010) and Top 5 (June 6, 2011). Sixth-ranked Li ends her career with a singles win-loss record of 503-188 and prize money earnings of nearly 17 million dollars on court.
