Although she retired in October 2014, globally renowned tennis player Li Na still topped the 2014 highest-paid Chinese athletes ranking with earnings of 80 million yuan (US$12.9 million), according to the latest annual list released by Sports Weekly, a popular Chinese sports newspaper.

Generally speaking, the earnings of all the sports people on the list shrunk compared with 2013.

Another famous Chinese snooker player, Ding Junhui, was not included in the list as his earnings were less than 10 million yuan (US$1.6 million) last year.

Rising tennis player Peng Shuai rose from sixth in 2013 to third position in 2014. Most surprisingly, the boxer Zhou Shiming gained significantly in popularity due to his persevering spirit. A series of victories pushed up his match appearance fees and increased his advertisement contracts.

Here are the ten highest-paid Chinese athletes in 2014:

 Feng Xiaoting

Feng Xiaoting [File Photo]

Sport: Soccer

Earnings in 2014: 10.5 million yuan (US$1.7 million)