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| Country (sports) |  China |
|---|---|
| Residence | Hubei |
| Born | (1980-01-05)5 January 1980 (age 45) Wuhan, Hubei |
| Height | 1.80 m (5 ft 11 in) |
| Turned pro | 1996 |
| Retired | 2007 |
| Plays | Right-handed (two-handed backhand) |
| Prize money | $383,259 |
| Singles | |
| Career record | 139–103 |
| Career titles | 3 ITF |
| Highest ranking | No. 136 (28 February 2005) |
| Grand Slam singles results | |
| Australian Open | 1R (2005,2006) |
| French Open | Q2 (2006) |
| Wimbledon | Q1 (2004,2006) |
| US Open | Q1 (2005,2006) |
| Doubles | |
| Career record | 274–109 |
| Career titles | 9 WTA, 26 ITF |
| Highest ranking | No. 19 (4 October 2004) |
| Grand Slam doubles results | |
| Australian Open | 3R (2004,2005,2006) |
| French Open | QF (2005) |
| Wimbledon | 1R (2004,2006) |
| US Open | 3R (2005) |
Medal record | |
Li Ting (Chinese:李婷;pinyin:Lǐ Tíng; born 5 January 1980) is aChinese tennis player. She won a gold medal at the2004 Summer Olympics inwomen's doubles alongsideSun Tiantian.[1][2]
She graduated from theHuazhong University of Science and Technology in 2002.
As a doubles player, Li has enjoyed great success, winning 26 ITF titles and a further nine WTA Tour titles.
She competed at the2004 Summer Olympics, defeatingSpain to win a gold medal in the women's tennis doubles along with her partnerSun Tiantian.
As a singles player, Li enjoyed limited success in ITF events until June 2000, when she qualified for a WTA tournament at Tashkent, then defeatedAlina Jidkova of Russia in the first round of the main draw, before bowing out in Round Two. As a wildcard entrant to the WTA event at Shanghai that September, she lost in three sets toTara Snyder in the first round. Without further success for the rest of the year, she ended world-ranked 325, beating her previous personal best of 347 at the end of 1998.
A year of indifferent results at lowly ITF level followed in 2001, but in September she came through qualifying with three straight wins to reach Shanghai again, beating countrywomanLiu Nannan in the final round, only to lose to FrenchwomanNathalie Dechy in the main draw. But this achievement was not enough to prevent her world ranking from dropping to 536 by the year's end.
2002 was a poorer year still for Li Ting in singles, as she failed to qualify for Shanghai and won only one match in just four ITF tournaments entered, leading her year-end ranking to slump to 837.
In 2003, she attempted to buck this trend by entering qualifying for several WTA Tour events while shunning the ITF circuit altogether, and managed to win her first round qualifying ties at Hyderabad, Bali and Shanghai, but failed to progress further until the Japan Open in late September, for which she qualified with wins overIvana Abramović andYan Zi, before being easily beaten byShinobu Asagoe of Japan in the main draw first round. Frustrated with her lack of progress at WTA level, she retreated into ITF territory, and met with some success at the $50,000 Paducah tournament in October, where she gained main draw entry as alucky loser in qualifying, then reached the quarter-final before losing toZheng Jie in three sets. Following this result, she was awarded wild-cards into two further $50,000 tournaments, but won just one match at the second. Still, she had pulled her world ranking back up inside the top 500, to No. 436.
In 2004, as if from nowhere, Li Ting's WTA career took off. She qualified for Doha with wins overShikha Uberoi and future starsMara Santangelo andMaret Ani, then defeatedEls Callens in the main draw first round before losing in straight sets toJennifer Capriati despite forcing a tie-break in the first set. In May, she proved this superb performance was no accident by qualifying for her second successive WTA tournament, this time defeatingMartina Müller,Mervana Jugić-Salkić andMichaela Paštiková, all very capable top-150 players, in straight sets, then stunnedIveta Benešová 6–4, 6–1 in the main draw first round before being downed in three sets byJelena Kostanić in Round 2. She competed little over the summer, but entered qualifying for Beijing in September, beatingMartina Suchá in the first round before losing to her on-form countrywomanLi Na. AtGuangzhou, she was awarded a wildcard to the main draw, and proved she deserved it by advancing to the semi-final with easy straight-sets victories overAnikó Kapros,Nicole Pratt andPeng Shuai, only to lose again to her former long-time doubles partner (and the eventual tournament champion) Li Na. In October, she entered the first $50k Shenzhen tournament, and reached the quarter-finals after a first-round win overYan Zi, before losing two matches later toSun Tiantian. Li Ting ended the year in the top 400 for the first time since 2000, and in the top 300 for the first time in her career, world-ranked 168, after a vastly improved season.
January 2005 saw Li Ting qualify for her firstGrand Slam tournament at theAustralian Open, with notable wins overLaura Pous Tió andSandra Kloesel; and she took a set fromMarta Domachowska of Poland in the main draw first round but lost the match. In February, she won another three back-to-back matches to qualify for Hyderabad, but then lost to upcoming starletJarmila Gajdošová in the first round of the tournament proper. At Doha, she reached the final round of qualifying with wins over Zheng Jie andAnca Barna, then lost to Roberta Vinci. At Dubai, she tookMaria Kirilenko to three sets, two of them tie-breaks, in an unfortunate first-round qualifying draw which she ultimately lost. But by the end of February she had improved her world-ranking to a career-best 136.
Li Ting's results at WTA events then took a downward turn for the next six months. Although she battled through to win a $50k event at Beijing in June, defeating Yan Zi surprisingly comfortably in the final, this career-best tournament victory was a blip on the radar of her disappointing summer results at WTA tournaments. In September, however, she came close to qualifying for Beijing, beatingMartina Müller before losing toEmma Laine in three sets. Then at Guangzhou, she reached the quarterfinal with excellent wins overVera Zvonareva andAlina Jidkova, then very nearly reached the semifinal for the second successive year, as she pushed eventual finalistNuria Llagostera Vives all the way before finally losing their joust 6–3, 4–6, 6–7. But after this, she did not play again for the rest of the year, and ended it ranked 177th, down almost forty places on her peak.
2006 began promisingly for Li Ting, as she qualified for January'sAustralian Open for the second successive year, only to lose this time to the young Russian starElena Vesnina. She also impressed in qualifying forDoha,Qatar in February, with wins over Yan Zi andTatiana Poutchek; but Maria Kirilenko, now ranked in the world top 30, once again proved the more capable player as they met in the first round of the main draw, defeating Li Ting in straight sets. Her ranking had slipped to 209 by the end of the month; but she has proven that she is capable of competing with players of top 100 calibre, and provided that she herself has the will to persist, tennis supporters can confidently expect to see plenty more fireworks from this talented 26-year-old doubles specialist in singles events before she calls time on her career.
In 2007, Li stopped partnering with Sun Tiantian, to make room for a new Chinese doubles player.Sun Shengnan was paired with Sun Tiantian, according to the2007 Australian Open website.
| Result | Year | Championship | Surface | Partner | Opponents | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gold | 2004 | Athens | Hard | Sun Tiantian |  Conchita MartínezVirginia Ruano | 6–3, 6–3 |
| Legend |
|---|
| Grand Slam (0/0) |
| Tier I (0/0) |
| Tier II (0/1) |
| Tier III (4/0) |
| Tier IV (5/3) |
| Result | No. | Date | Tournament | Surface | Partner | Opponents | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Win | 1. | Jun 2000 | Tashkent Open, Uzbekistan | Hard | Li Na |  Iroda Tulyaganova Anna Zaporozhanova | 3–6, 6–2, 6–4 |
| Win | 2. | Jun 2003 | Austrian Open, Austria | Clay | Sun Tiantian | Yan ZiZheng Jie | 6–3, 6–4 |
| Loss | 1. | Oct 2003 | Tashkent Open, Uzbekistan | Hard | Sun Tiantian | Yuliya Beygelzimer Tatiana Poutchek | 3–6, 6–7(0) |
| Win | 3. | Nov 2003 | Bell Challenge, Canada | Hard(i) | Sun Tiantian |  Els Callens Meilen Tu | 6–3, 6–3 |
| Win | 4. | Nov 2003 | Pattaya Open, Thailand | Hard | Sun Tiantian |  Wynne PrakusyaAngelique Widjaja | 6–4, 6–3 |
| Loss | 2. | Feb 2004 | Bangalore Open, India | Hard | Sun Tiantian |  Liezel Huber Sania Mirza | 6–7(1), 4–6 |
| Win | 5. | Oct 2004 | Guangzhou Open, China | Hard | Sun Tiantian | Yang ShujingYu Ying | 6–4, 6–1 |
| Loss | 3. | Feb 2005 | Bangalore Open, India | Hard | Sun Tiantian | Yan Zi Zheng Jie | 4–6, 1–6 |
| Win | 6. | May 2005 | Estoril Open, Portugal | Clay | Sun Tiantian |  Michaëlla Krajicek Henrieta Nagyová | 6–3, 6–1 |
| Win | 7. | Feb 2006 | Pattaya Open, Thailand | Hard | Sun Tiantian | Yan Zi Zheng Jie | 3–6, 6–1, 7–6(5) |
| Loss | 4. | Mar 2006 | Doha Open, Qatar | Hard | Sun Tiantian | Daniela Hantuchová Ai Sugiyama | 4–6, 4–6 |
| Win | 8. | May 2006 | Estoril Open, Portugal | Clay | Sun Tiantian |  Gisela DulkoMaría Sánchez Lorenzo | 6–2, 6–2 |
| Win | 9. | Oct 2006 | Guangzhou Open, China | Hard | Sun Tiantian | Vania King Jelena Kostanić Tošić | 6–4, 2–6, 7–5 |
| $50,000 tournaments |
| $25,000 tournaments |
| $10,000 tournaments |
| Result | No. | Date | Tournament | Surface | Opponent | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Win | 1. | 19 September 1999 | ITF Ibaraki, Japan | Hard |  Kate Warne-Holland | 6–4, 2–6, 6-1 |
| Win | 2. | 26 September 1999 | ITF Tokyo, Japan | Hard |  Orawan Wongkamalasai | 6–0, 3–6, 6-0 |
| Win | 3. | 12 June 2005 | ITF Beijing, China | Hard | Yan Zi | 6–1, 6-3 |
| Result | No. | Date | Tournament | Surface | Partner | Opponents | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Win | 1. | 10 November 1997 | ITF Manila, Philippines | Hard | Ding Ding |  Khoo Chin-bee Weng Tzu-ting | 7–5, 6–3 |
| Win | 2. | 2 March 1998 | ITF New Delhi, India | Hard | Ding Ding | Motoe UchidaQin Yang | 6–3, 6–2 |
| Loss | 3. | 10 May 1998 | ITF Seoul, South Korea | Clay | Ding Ding |  Cho Yoon-jeongPark Sung-hee | 1–6, 6–3, 2–6 |
| Loss | 4. | 7 June 1998 | ITF Little Rock, United States | Hard | Li Li | Keiko IshidaKeiko Nagatomi | 5–7, 1–6 |
| Win | 5. | 13 June 1999 | ITF Shenzhen, China | Hard | Li Na | Liza AndriyaniIrawati Iskandar | 6–1, 6–3 |
| Win | 6. | 21 June 1999 | ITF Shenzhen, China | Hard | Li Na | Chung Yang-jinLee Eun-jeong | 6–3, 6–1 |
| Win | 7. | 15 August 1999 | ITF Rebecq, Belgium | Clay | Li Na | Natasha GalouzaMaaike Koutstaal | 6–1, 6–4 |
| Win | 8. | 22 August 1999 | ITF Koksijde, Belgium | Clay | Li Na |  Rewa HudsonShelley Stephens | 6–3, 6–2 |
| Win | 9. | 29 August 1999 | ITF Westende, Belgium | Clay | Li Na | Natasha GalouzaAnouk Sterk | 7–6(5), 6–2 |
| Win | 10. | 19 September 1999 | ITF Ibaraki, Japan | Clay | Li Na | Mareze JoubertKate Warne-Holland | 7–6(4), 6–3 |
| Win | 11. | 26 September 1999 | ITF Tokyo, Japan | Clay | Li Na | Maki AraiKumiko Iijima | 6–2, 6–1 |
| Win | 12. | 12 December 1999 | ITF Manila, Philippines | Hard | Li Na | Haruka InoueMaiko Inoue | 6–3, 6–2 |
| Win | 13. | 10 January 2000 | ITF Boca Raton, United States | Hard | Maiko Inoue |  Olga BlahotováGabriela Chmelinová | 4–6, 6–2, 6–3 |
| Loss | 14. | 17 January 2000 | ITF Boca Raton, United States | Hard | Li Na | Sandra CacicLindsay Lee-Waters | 4–6, 5–7 |
| Win | 15. | 30 January 2000 | ITF Hallandale, United States | Hard | Li Na | Jean OkadaHana Šromová | 6–3, 7–5 |
| Win | 16. | 28 February 2000 | ITF Chengdu, China | Hard | Li Na |  Joana Cortez Katalin Marosi | 6–1, 6–3 |
| Win | 17. | 26 March 2000 | ITF Nanjing, China | Hard | Li Na | Chae Kyung-yeeRyoko Takemura | 7–6(4), 6–1 |
| Win | 18. | 2 April 2000 | ITF Nanjing, China | Hard | Li Na | Ding DingLin Ya-ming | 6–1, 7–6 |
| Win | 19. | 23 April 2000 | ITF Dalian, China | Hard | Li Na | Chang Kyung-miSatoko Kurioka | 7–5, 6–3 |
| Loss | 20. | 14 May 2000 | ITF Seoul, South Korea | Clay | Li Na | Shinobu AsagoeSaori Obata | 1–6, 3–6 |
| Loss | 21. | 28 May 2000 | ITF Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam | Hard | Li Na | Cho Yoon-jeong Saori Obata | 1–6, 2–6 |
| Loss | 22. | 4 June 2000 | ITF Shenzhen, China | Hard | Li Na | Kim Eun-ha Saori Obata | 1–6, 3–6 |
| Win | 23. | 2 July 2000 | ITF Orbetello, Italy | Clay | Li Na | Joana CortezMiriam D'Agostini | 6–3, 7–6(3) |
| Loss | 23. | 4 June 2001 | ITF Shenzhen, China | Hard | Lui-Li Shen | Liu NannanPeng Shuai | 4–6, 1-6 |
| Win | 24. | 29 July 2001 | ITF Guangzhou, China | Hard |  Tong Ka-po | Chen YanSun Tiantian | 7–5, 6–3 |
| Loss | 25. | 21 April 2002 | ITF Cagliari, Italy | Clay | Li Na | Yan ZiZheng Jie | 4–6, 0–6 |
| Win | 26. | 11 August 2002 | ITF Beijing, China | Hard | Sun Tiantian | Yan Zi Zheng Jie | 7–5, 6-3 |
| Win | 27. | 23 February 2003 | ITF Columbus, United States | Hard (i) | Sun Tiantian | Bruna ColósioJoana Cortez | 6–3, 6–1 |
| Win | 28. | 2 March 2003 | ITF Saint Paul, United States | Hard | Sun Tiantian | Teryn AshleyAbigail Spears | 6–3, 6-1 |
| Win | 29. | 30 March 2003 | ITF Atlanta, United States | Hard | Sun Tiantian | Leanne Baker Francesca Lubiani | 4–6, 6–4, 6-4 |
| Loss | 30. | 16 June 2003 | ITF Gorizia, Italy | Clay | Sun Tiantian | Yan Zi Zheng Jie | 6-7(5), 6–1, 4-6 |
| Win | 31. | 23 June 2003 | ITF Fontanafredda, Italy | Clay | Sun Tiantian |  Maria Geznenge Dragana Zarić | 6–4, 6–3 |
| Loss | 32. | 30 June 2003 | ITF Orbetello, Italy | Clay | Sun Tiantian | Yan Zi Zheng Jie | 2–6, 5-7 |
| Win | 33. | 13 July 2003 | ITF Modena, Italy | Clay | Sun Tiantian | Rika Fujiwara Trudi Musgrave | 3–6, 7–5, 7–5 |
| Win | 34. | 30 November 2003 | ITF Changsha, China | Hard | Sun Tiantian | Yan Zi Zheng Jie | 6–4, 6-2 |
| Win | 35. | 7 December 2003 | ITF Shenzhen, China | Hard | Sun Tiantian | Yan Zi Zheng Jie | 6–3, 3–6, 6-4 |
| Loss | 36. | 6 June 2005 | ITF Beijing, China | Hard | Sun Tiantian | Yan Zi Zheng Jie | 1–6, 5-7 |
| Win | 37. | 16 August 2005 | Bronx Open, United States | Hard | Sun Tiantian | Tatiana PoutchekAnastasiya Yakimova | 2–6, 6–2, 6–4 |
