It was hailed as end of the Ming dynasty. Yao Ming, China's greatest basketball player of all time bid farewell to the game. Li Na inspired a new generation of tennis fans and the sporting world mourned the loss of Joe Frazier and Socrates.

Click on the small images above to see who made the cut in our Year in Review.

Li Na, 29, won the 2011 French Open singles title on June 4, making her the first Asian country representative to win a Grand Slam in singles. It was China's first major tennis title, sparking a wave of interest in the sport across the country. [Read more]

Yao Ming, 31, former Houston Rockets center and China's greatest basketball player ever, announced his retirement, due to repeated stress fractures in his left foot, in Shanghai on July 20, marking the end of an era for the game. [Read more]

The campaign to purge Chinese soccer of corruption kicked off in December. Zhang Jianqiang, former director of the Chinese Football Association's (CFA) referee committee, was the first defendant in the dock. Several other former high-ranking officials, including Yang Yimin, former vice-president of CFA and four top referees, including Lu Jun, a 2002 World Cup referee and once dubbed the country's "Golden Whistle", will also face trial. [Read more]

French international and Chelsea striker Nicolas Anelka is destined to become the biggest star in the Chinese Super League after Shanghai Shenhua Football Club announced on Dec 12 they had signed the 32-year-old on a two-year deal. He will move to China in January. [Read more]

Olympic gold medalist Liu Xiang, who suffered from a serious foot injury for almost three years, returned to the world championship stage on Aug 29 to win the silver medal in the Men's 110m hurdles final in the Daegu IAAF World Championships. Liu, 28, finished the race in third place, but he eventually won the silver medal, as the winner Dayron Robles was disqualified for entering Liu's lane and touching him. [Read more]

Joe Frazier, one of the great heavyweight boxers of his era, died on Nov 7 aged 67, a month after being diagnosed with liver cancer. He will be forever remembered for his epic trilogy of fights with Muhammad Ali in the 1970s, the third of which - the so-called "Thrilla in Manila" - is widely regarded as the best fight of all time. [Read more]

Plump, over-aged and injury-dogged, soccer legend Ronaldo finally called it a day in February. But the renowned player will continue to inspire in soccer by taking an administrative role in organizing the 2014 Brazil World Cup. With 15 historic World Cup goals and two World Cup titles, the arguably greatest player on the planet finally found an opponent he couldn't overcome - himself. [Read more]

Named after the Greek Athenian philosopher, former Brazil captain Socrates died on Dec 4 aged 57 from an intestinal infection. Socrates, who, in 1982, captained what is widely regarded as the best Brazil side never to have won the World Cup, was hospitalized twice in the year. He played in two World Cups, won 60 caps for his country between 1979 and 1986 and scored 22 goals. [Read more]

The 29-year-old retired, came back, and quit again. Former world No 1 and seven-time Grand Slam winner Justin Henin abruptly announced she was quitting tennis five days after a third round loss at the 2011 Australian Open in January. [Read more]

China's "dream team" of divers topped the 14th FINA World Championships' diving medal tally in Shanghai in July, sweeping all 10 gold medals plus four silvers. It was the first time in history that Chinese divers swept the board at the worlds. Sun Yang rewrote the 10-year 1,500 meter world record. [Read more]