Retired Chinese tennis star Li Na (R) and her husband Jiang Shan pose on the red carpet for the Laureus World Sports Award ceremony at the Grand Theater in Shanghai on April 15, 2015. Li Na wins the Exceptional Achievement Award at the 16th Laureus World Sports Awards. (Photo: Xinhua/Chen Fei)
China's twice Grand Slam winner Li Na gave birth to a baby girl, who is named Alisa, on Wednesday.
Li Na, who retired last September, released the news early Wednesday morning on her Weibo account, China's equivalent of twitter, and posted a footprint picture of her daughter.
June 3 is also the birthday of Spanish tennis star Rafael Nadal. June 4 is the date when Li Na lifted her first Grand Slam title from the French Open in 2011. Li Na's fans quipped that Alisa is born for tennis.
As a good friend to Li Na, Zheng Jie revealed that Li Na was in Beijing for the delivery. "Everything was the same except for a big belly for her (Li Na) when I saw her last month before I departed for the French Open," said Zheng, who reached the French Open mixed doubles semifinal on Tuesday.
Li Na, who announced her retirement on Sept. 19 last year, has been hoping to have a daughter as her first-born as she always referred to the baby with "she" instead of "he" in interviews.
Li Na reportedly played tennis when she was pregnant. Li said she didn't take tennis as "pre-natal education", but she will guide her child to take up sports, not necessarily tennis alone.
According to Forbes fortune list, Li Na had earned 442 million yuan RMB (70 million US dollars) out of prize and sponsorship in her peak period of 2010-2014.
Li Na hopes her child can have a simple life. "My husband and I both agree to support our child for the first 18 years. After that the child has to be independent financially," said Li.
