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Some tears but ‘no regrets’ for Li Na
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CHINESE tennis star Li Na has “no regrets” about her decision to retire over persistent knee injuries, but wiped away tears as she acknowledged yesterday that she had thought long and hard about the decision.
The two-time Grand Slam winner was making her first public remarks since she announced her retirement last Friday.
“I’m very satisfied with my tennis career,” 32-year-old Li told reporters at China’s National Tennis Center in Beijing, which hosts the China Open later this month.
“I feel this is the best time for me to retire. I don’t feel sorry or have any regrets about retiring. When I was making this decision, I asked myself, ‘If I retire, will I regret it?’
“My heart told me I wouldn’t, because I’ve done my best.”
The event was an emotional one both for Li and the nearly 200 journalists who attended. At one point, a Chinese journalist raised his hand to ask a question, but then went silent before breaking down into tears.
“Here, take this,” Li said, holding out a tissue from her seat at the podium and holding back tears of her own.
Li’s announcement came just seven months after she lifted the Australian Open title, one of her career highlights following her French Open victory in 2011.
In postings on social media on Friday, she wrote that “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.”
Yesterday, as she ended a career that has brought her nine titles and introduced tennis to the masses in China, she said: “I want to tell everyone — because everyone has his or her own dream —you must keep pursuing your dream.”
The next Li Na may arrive “at any moment,” she added. “Just keep an eye out. The next player will be even better than me.”
Li decided to break from the state sports system in 2008 with a group of up-and-coming players, a move the media dubbed “fly alone.”
The move meant she was able to choose her own coaches and keep most of her winnings.
But asked whether she would encourage future athletes to do the same, she demurred, and focused instead on the positive aspects of her time in the state system.
“I actually don’t like the phrase ‘fly alone.’ It’s a term made up by the media,” she said. “Personally, I prefer the phrase ‘more professional.’”
She said if she had not trained with China’s national team, she would not have been able to achieve her current success.
Li said her post-retirement plans include working to further the development of tennis in China and working with children.
A child of her own may also be part of her future plans.
Li’s news conference coincided with the first day of the Wuhan Open, a new premier-level tournament established on the back of her success.
The event, which will be headlined by Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova, is being held in Li’s home city in central China’s Hubei Province.
World No. 4 Sharapova led tributes to Li in Wuhan, saying: “It is obviously a very big loss for tennis in general all around the world, and specifically here in China where Li Na has been so influential for so many years.”
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