Li Xuerui: Former Olympian retires, a look at her top 5 performances

Former Olympic gold medalist Li Xuerui has anunced her retirement from international bminton, BWF anunced on Thursday. She was one of most dominating bminton players of last dece before an injury at Rio Olympics 2016 ruined her career.

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Li’s first major title came at  Bminton Asia Championships in 2010, when as a 19-year-old she defeated Saina Nehwal and compatriot Liu Xin on way to title. She quickly rose through  ranks and was soon among favourites at most of top-tier events. She won her first BWF Superseries title at  2012 All England tournament. biggest moment of her career came later that year when she won gold in women's singles event at London Olympics.

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Li was ranked world .1 between 2013 and 2015, but she went on to lose two consecutive finals of BWF World Championships in 2013 and 2014 to Thailand's young Ratchak Intan and Spain's Carolina Marin respectively. She was  favourite to grab gold at Rio Olympics but suffered an injury, which was later diagsed as an Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) rupture in semifinal against Marin. She lost match and was out of action for over a year.

Let us have a look at her top five performances:

2010 Asian Championship:

This was Li's first major tournament and she went on to win  Asian Championship. In final she defeated her compatriot, Liu Xin 21–13, 18–21, 21–19 to grab gold.

2012 Asian Championship:

In 2012, she replicated her heroics from  2010 Asian Championship and won title by defeating Wang Yihan with a score of 21–16, 16–21, 21–9.

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2012 London Olympics:

In 2012, Li was at pinnacle of her career. She me her first appearance at  Olympic Games and on August 5, she won  London Olympic gold medal, in final she defeated fellow compatriot Wang Yihan in three games to win with a score of 21–15, 21–23, 21–17.

2013 & 2014 Wold Championships:

In 2013 World Championship, she won a silver medal in  World Championship when she was defeated by Thailand's Ratchak Intan with a score of 22–20, 18–21, 14–21. In 2014, she again mand to get to final of  World Championships but she lost to Spanish player Carolina Marín with a score of 21–17, 17–21, 18–21.

2014 & 2015 Denmark Open:

She won 2014 Denmark Open and in 2015, Li again mand to defend her title. In final, she defeated P. V. Sindhu of India with a score of 21-19, 21-12. 

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