Players competing at the Hong Kong Tennis Open later this month will have the opportunity to pick the brain of two-time Grand Slam champion and former world No. 2 Li Na, who this week was announced at the new tournament director for the WTA 250 event.
Li, who retired from tennis 10 years ago, has appeared sporadically at tennis tournaments in recent years following the 2015 and 2016 births of her two children, beginning with her inducation into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 2019. Last year, she played the legends’ event at Wimbledon for a second time (having first done so in 2018), and this January, returned to Melbourne Park for the 10-year anniversary of her championship, where she met with eventual finalist Zheng Qinwen and also competed in the invitational event.
But now, the two-time Grand Slam champion joins her fellow retired major-winner Garbiñe Muguruza in being named a WTA tournament director this year.
In June, Muguruza was tabbed to the post for the inaugural WTA Finals in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, as the first former player to hold the role at that tournament. Other high-profile former ATP and WTA players in tournament director roles include Amélie Mauresmo at Roland Garros, and James Blake and Tommy Haas at the joint ATP and WTA 1000 events at Miami and Indian Wells, respectively.
