New Zealand tennis player Lulu Sun has reached her first final at a WTA event, winning her place in the Monterrey Open in Mexico.
Sun defeated Russia’s Ekaterina Alexandrova 7-5 3-6 7-6(6) in two hours 20 minutes on Friday (Saturday NZ Time) and is now aiming to be the the first Kiwi to win a singles title at this level since Marina Erakovic in Memphis in 2013.
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The win is expected to lift Sun to No 41 in the world rankings, after starting 2024 at No 219 and she will be just two places behind Erakovic’s career-high of 39.
Against Alexandrova, the 23-year-old Sun did not show any signs of nerves as she searched for the second win of her career over a top-30 player as she confidently got a hold in her first service game, while her opponent was struggling with double-faults.
Sun had a couple of break points on Alexandrova’s serve in the seventh game and although she was not able to convert them, the pressure was building on the Russian.
Her fifth double-fault gave Sun another break point at 5-5 and after a long rally Alexandrova was pushed out wide and put a backhand into the net. Sun made quick work of holding serve in the next game, blasting winners into the corners to take a one-set lead.
But in the fifth game of the second set Alexandrova raised her game to levels not seen in this match before, breaking Sun to love, hitting a couple of massive returns.
The No 3 seed carried that momentum through the rest of the set, to take this match the distance.
There was nothing between the two players during the deciding set, with both serving well, even though Alexandrova had racked up nine break points before the tiebreak began.
Her 10th came in the second point of that tiebreak and at the change of ends, Sun was up 4-2 and she then went on to lead 6-3 for three match points. The first two were on Alexandrova’s serve, which she saved, but the next, on Sun’s serve, was also saved as the Russian put away a short ball at the net.
Sun set up a fourth match point with a winner down the line, and this time on match point Alexandrova put a backhand into the net.
In the final, Sun will play the winner of the match between Emma Navarro and Linda Noskova.