Li Na dismisses retirement rumor

Xinhua, April 12, 2011

Top Chinese tennis player Li Na has said she has no intention to hang up her rackets to dispel rumors that she will retire at the end of the season.

Li, ranked seventh in the world, wrote in her microblog Sunday that she loves her playing career and has no intention to quit.

"I am working hard to prepare the red clay season in Munich recently. Hopefully I can get rid of the low form that has bothered me for a while," she said on weibo.com/linatennis. "Since the April Fool's Day is gone, please don't believe the rumors. I love tennis to be in my life, so I will continue."

Li became the highest-ranked Chinese tennis player in history after she fought into the Australian Open final in January. Ranked 7th, she was the second highest ranked Asian player ever.

Despite that she fell to Belgian Kim Clijsters eventually, Li wrote a new page in Chinese tennis history book as the first finalist in any Grand Slam tournaments.

Li's form, however, dropped rapidly after the Australian Open, crashing out of the following four events after playing the first rounds, which seemed to make an anonymous letter all the more likely.

"According to one of Li's close friends, the feat at the Australian Open has pushed Li to her career peak but in private, she admitted that she would never accomplish a better result than that and she lost motives to continue...Li is thinking about retirement," said an anonymous email which appeared in several tennis reporters' mailboxes last week.

A guessing game started among the media at first and Li's chronic injury and age turned into evidence to support the rumor.

Li turned 29 in February and has been fighting against her knee injury since the Australian Open.