📍Wuhan, Hubei, China
1982 – 2002“Li Na was born in Wuhan, the great industrial city on the Yangtze River in central China, in February 1982. Her father, Li Shengpeng, had been a professional badminton player whose career was cut short, and he hoped his daughter would become a badminton champion. She started playing badminton at about six, developing the quick reflexes that later served her in tennis, and she was an energetic, outspoken child. Just before she turned eight, a coach from the Wuhan youth tennis club, Xia Xiyao, persuaded her to switch to tennis, and she was sent to a specialist sports boarding school in the city. Tennis was then a little-known sport in China, and training was tough and disciplined, with long days on hot hard courts in Wuhan's fierce summers. When she was fourteen, her father died suddenly of an illness while she was away at a junior tournament in Shenzhen; the family kept the news from her until it had finished, and she later said that their last goodbye at Wuhan railway station stayed with her for ever. She trained even harder after that, determined to support her mother. She joined the national team, and after a break to study journalism at Huazhong University of Science and Technology, she returned to tennis. In 2011 she won the French Open, becoming the first Asian player to win a Grand Slam singles title, and in 2014 she won the Australian Open. She inspired millions of Chinese children to take up tennis, and her success helped bring a major WTA tournament to her home city of Wuhan.”
🗺️ Approximate location today
📍 Street view today