China's Grand Slam winning paddler Ding Ning retires

"Hopefully she can dig out greater potential in more aspects other than table tennis and sports," commented another Grand Slam winner Zhang Yining.

Ding took up table tennis in 1996, before being recruited to the Chinese national junior team in 2003 and then the senior team in 2005.

She completed a grand slam of titles in 2016 after winning the Rio Olympics gold medal. She was appointed the captain of the Chinese women's team in February 2017.