New Zealand's Lulu Sun's Wimbledon has come to an end after the kiwi had her chances, but was beaten in three sets in the quarterfinals.
The 23-year-old Te Anau born player was defeated 7-5, 4-6, 6-1 by 36th ranked Donna Vekic from Croatia on Court One at Wimbledon.
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Sun will now see her ranking moved from 123 to around 55 and have renewed confidence, although she won't get much of a break with the Olympics coming up followed by a quick build up to the US Open starting late next month.
“It was a tough match, Donna played really well,” Sun said in her post-match press conference.
“She picked it up in the second set. Obviously the third set, I mean, towards the end of the second and third, I had troubles physically with some cramps.
“That's maybe the only regret I have is I couldn't keep up physically, but she played better today and she deserved the win.”
Under the roof for the quarterfinal Sun and Vekic traded shots early on with games on serve.
It was not until the seventh game in first set which Vekic took a long time to hold. which looked like the first realistic break chance for Sun.
Games continued with served until Sun powered to a quick lead and then took the advantage of a couple of Vekic lapses to break her opponent in the 11th game to lead 6-5.
Sun then served out the set, albeit with a break point against her, but again her composure was clam as she wrapped it up 7-5 in just on an hour.
The second set went game for game with scores at 4-3 and Sun serving, however the intensity from Vekic stepped up and she broke the kiwi to go ahead 5-3 and serve for the set.
Sun was able to held her serve to make the score 4-5, but once again the Vekic upped the tempo and became more aggressive winning the set 6-4.
Vekic served first in the third set, holding easily, before breaking Sun and then holding again for a 3-0 lead...in fact the Croat won 16 points in a row and broke in the next game as well for 4-0.
For the first time in the tournament. The pressure appeared to tell on Sun in what was her eighth match of Wimbledon 2025.
Another quick game in the fifth saw Vekic take the lead 5-0 and put Sun in a position of having to serve to stay in the match.
Sun responded with by winning her serve without dropping a point and got herself on the scoreboard. However Vekic then took out the match to love with some big serves and a backhand error from Sun to end it.
Sun had originally entered a tournament in Hungary next week, but is likely to take the week off to recover.
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