Lulu Sun reaches first WTA final of career

Lulu Sun has reached another huge milestone in her career, making it into the final of the WTA Monterey Open in Mexico.

On Saturday (Sunday NZ time), Sun defeated Russia’s Ekaterina Alexandrova 7-5 3-6 7-6(6) in two hours, 20 minutes.

Sun had never reached the semifinal of a WTA tournament before this week, but now she’s one win away from being the first Kiwi to win a singles title at this level since Marina Erakovic in Memphis in 2013.

This win is expected to lift Sun to 41 in the world rankings, after starting 2024 at 219 in the world and she’ll be just two places behind Erakovic’s career high of 39.

Against Alexandrova, the 23-year-old Sun didn’t 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 wasn’t 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 players 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.

It has been a whirlwind couple of months for Sun, since coming through qualifying to make it to the quarterfinals of Wimbledon and on court after this match she said it would be incredible to cap this off with her maiden WTA title.

“That would be so crazy,” Sun said. 

“I’m going to do my best, this year is about keeping my level up, keep improving each day and getting so many new experiences. So I’m really thankful for that.”

In the final, Sun will play the winner of the match between Emma Navarro and Linda Noskova. And what will Sun do before the final?

“Eat and sleep!” She smiled.