New Zealand tennis player Lulu Sun has come close, but was eventually defeated by Marta Kostyuk from the Ukraine in the second round of the WTA Cincinnati 1000 tournament
After winning through qualifying Sun lost to world No 21 Kostyuk 6-3 7-5 having also being defeated by the same player in the Olympics recently.
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Sun struggled with her serving, but still worked hard to attack her opponent when she could from the ground.
The 23-year-old Kiwi went down a break midway through the first set, which she wasn’t able to get back.
In the second set Sun had three set points when Kostyuk was serving at 4-5, but the Ukrainian was able to save all of them, doing this on the second one with a huge ace down the middle of the court.
Then in the following game Sun was broken to put Kostyuk into a position to serve for the match which she duly completed.
Sun should now see her ranking move from 64 to around 58 when the world rankings are next released.
Meanwhile, Michael Venus has made it through the second round of the doubles in Cincinnati.
He and Neal Skupski defeated Julian Cash from Britain and America’s Robert Galloway 6-3 6-7(4) 12-10,
In the next round Venus and Britain’s Skupski will play against Santiago Gonzalez from Mexico and the Frenchman Edouard Roger-Vasselin.