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 a 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 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, but was stopped by the 2017 World Champion from Japan
Nozomi Okuhara with a score of 17–21, 14–21. After that, she 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 to
Busanan Ongbamrungphan 21-18, 20-22, 6-21 at the Australian Open despite leading in the second game. 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 on 17 October after trailing in the 2nd game 15-21, 3-11. == Achievements ==