New Zealand's Lulu Sun has scored her first victory of 2025 and first win since August last year after opening round success at the WTA 500 tournament in Abu Dhabi.
Left-hander Sun ranked 45 in the world defeated 76th ranked French woman Caroline Garcia 6-1 6-3 in the first round of the strong event.
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It was the fifth tournament of the year for Sun, 23 who won the match in an hour 15 minutes. .
Garcia, formerly ranked as high as No 4 in the world in 2018 had her serve broken four times in the opening set. She was also broken in the second set to help Sun take the win.
Te Anau-born Sun had her serve improve over the match, which had been a weak point to date this year.
In the second round Sun will play the winner of the match between Canadian Leylah Fernandez the tournament’s No 7 seed, and Japan’s Moyuka Uchijma.