Li Xuerui

Li Xuerui (born 24 January 1991) is a retired Chinese professional badminton player, she is one of the most successful players of her time. She was a gold medalist at 2012 London Olympic in the women's singles event and was the silver medalists in the 2013 and 2014 World Championships. Li Xuerui won fourteen Superseries titles, confirming her status as China's second most successful player after Wang Yihan. She reached a career high of no. 1 in the women's singles for 124 weeks. Li graduated with a BA from Huaqiao University.
Career summary.
Li Xuerui started playing badminton when she was 7 years old. She began playing in local clubs in her hometown in Chongqing. She made her professional debut as a badminton player when she attended the Asia Junior championship which took place in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
2008.
In 2008, she won gold medal at the Asian Junior championship, which took place in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
2010.
In 2010, Li Xuerui won her first Grand Prix Gold title at the Macau Open, in the final she defeated Adrianti Firdasari from Indonesia with a score of 21–18, 21–15.
Li won her first major tournament, the Asian Championships. In the final, she defeated her compatriot, Liu Xin, 21–13, 18–21, 21–19.
2012.
In 2012, she repeated her success at the Asian Championships by defeating Wang Yihan with a score of 21–16, 16–21, 21–9.
Li won the prestigious Super Series Premier event title at the All England Open for the first time by beating Wang Yihan in the final with a score of 21–13, 21–19.
She then captured other international titles in India Open, China Open, and Hong Kong Open.
She collected five Super Series titles, including the Super Series Final in Dubai which she won defeating Wang Shixian in the final.
The 2012 season could be said to be the career peak for Li Xuerui. She made her first appearance at the Olympic Games, and on August 5, she won the London Olympic gold medal, in the final she defeated compatriot Wang Yihan with a score of 21–15, 21–23, 21–17.
2013.
In 2013, she won a silver medal in the World Championship when she was defeated by Thailand's Ratchanok Intanon in the final with a score of 22–20, 18–21, 14–21.
In the same year, she won three Super Series titles in the Indonesia Open, China Open and the Super Series Final.
2014.
In 2014, she reached the World Championships final, then she lost to the Spanish player Carolina Marín with a score of 21–17, 17–21, 18–21.
Li managed to win four Super Series titles including successfully defending her title in Indonesia Open, the other titles were: Japan Open, Malaysia Open, and Denmark Open.
2015.
In 2015, Li Xuerui managed to defend her title at the Denmark Open. In the final she defeated P. V. Sindhu of India with a score of 21-19, 21-12.
2016 Summer Olympics: heartbreak and injury issues.
At the 2016 Summer Olympics women's singles semi-finals, Li Xuerui was defeated by world No. 1 Carolina Marín when she suffered injuries to her anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) and lateral meniscus. This forced her to withdraw from the bronze medal match against Nozomi Okuhara.
2018: Return to professional badminton.
Li made her return to professional badminton at the 2017 National Games of China, where she played women's doubles but lost at the group stage. The reason for why she had played doubles instead of singles was that she was not yet fully recovered. In 2018, she made her return to international women's singles after a hiatus of 600 days at the 2018 Lingshui China Masters, which she won.
2019.
In 2019, she played 25 times with 11 wins and 14 losses. She reached the quarter final at the All England Open, stopped by the 2017 World Champion from Japan Nozomi Okuhara with a score of 17–21, 14–21. After that, finished as the runner-up at the New Zealand Open, losing to South Korean youngster An Se-young with a score of 19–21, 15–21.
She lost out to Busanan Ongbamrungphan 21-18, 20-22, 6-21 ath Australian Open despite leading in the second game. Then afterwards, her career witnessed a huge downfall. She competed in Indonesia, Thailand, Japan and China and lost in the first round in all the tournaments. She announced her retirement from the international circuit in the first round match against Sayaka Takahashi in Korea Open dated 17th October after trailing in the 2nd game 15-21, 3-11.
Achievements.
Olympic Games.
"Women's singles"
World Championships.
"Women's singles"
Asian Games.
"Women's singles"
Asian Championships.
"Women's singles"
World University Championships.
"Women's singles"
"Women's doubles"
Asian Junior Championships.
"Girls' singles"
BWF World Tour.
The BWF World Tour, announced on 19 March 2017 and implemented in 2018, is a series of elite badminton tournaments, sanctioned by Badminton World Federation (BWF). The BWF World Tour are divided into six levels, namely World Tour Finals, Super 1000, Super 750, Super 500, Super 300 (part of the HSBC World Tour), and the BWF Tour Super 100.
"Women's singles"
BWF Superseries.
The BWF Superseries, launched on 14 December 2006 and implemented in 2007, is a series of elite badminton tournaments, sanctioned by Badminton World Federation (BWF). BWF Superseries has two levels: Superseries and Superseries Premier. A season of Superseries features twelve tournaments around the world, which introduced since 2011, with successful players invited to the Superseries Finals held at the year end.
"Women's singles"
BWF Grand Prix.
The BWF Grand Prix has two levels, the BWF Grand Prix and Grand Prix Gold. It is a series of badminton tournaments sanctioned by the Badminton World Federation (BWF) since 2007.
"Women's singles"
Performance timeline.
Singles performance timeline.
"To avoid confusion and double counting, information in this table is updated only once a tournament or the player's participation in the tournament has concluded. This table is current through 2016 Indonesia Open."
Record against selected opponents.
Record against year-end Finals finalists, World Championships semi-finalists, and Olympic quarter-finalists.