Retired Australian Open champ Li Na announces she’s pregnant

A year ago, Chinese tennis star Li Na captured her second Grand Slam title by winning the Australian Open. Retired and back in Melbourne, Li had some big news.

What a difference a year had made for two-time Grand Slam champion Li Na.

The reigning Australian Open champion is not defending her title, having retired in September. She was featured as a guest of honor Monday during the first day of play in this year’s Aussie Open and had some big news.

“Dennis [Jiang, her husband] and I are so excited,” Li told the crowd at Melbourne Park, per The Sydney Morning Herald. “Our first child will arrive in the summer.”

Li also posted a longer message to her fans on her official Facebook page.

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Li, who will be 32 next month, won nine singles titles in her professional career, which began in 2000 at Boca Raton, Fla.

She finished 2014 ranked No. 9 in the WTA world rankings after reaching No. 3 in the world to end the 2013 season. Her highest ranking at any point was when she reached No. 2 last year after winning in Melbourne.

Li’s other Grand Slam title came in 2010, when the won the French Open. She also reached the Australian Open final in 2011 and 2013.

Li broke in the world’s top 100 players for the first time in 2004, the year she captured her first WTA title at Guangzhou, defeating Martina Sucha to become the first Chinese player to win a title on the women’s world tour.

When Li reached the Aussie Open final in 2011, she became the first Asian player of either gender to reach at Grand Slam final, but she fell to Kim Clijsters in the final, and then took that first-of-its-kind accomplishment to the top level when she won at Roland Garros, downing Francesca Schiavone for the title.

Li is credited with introducing tennis to the masses in China and she became a pioneer of sorts in 2008 when she and a group of up-and-coming players broke from the state sports system to take control of her own coaching and—more fundamentally—her own winnings, rather than having to turn them over to the central government of China (per The New York Times).

Li competed in three Olympics, but never captured a medal. She finished fourth in the Russian-dominated 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, losing the third-place match to Vera Zvonareva. Elena Dementieva won the gold, defeating Dinara Safina in the final.

In 2012 at London, Li was upset in the first round by Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia.

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