Lulu Sun knocks out top seed for third tournament in a row

Lulu Sun has stunned top seed Anastasia Zakharova to make it to the semifinals in Jinan, China.

At the WTA 125 tournament on Thursday, Sun defeated the Russian 7-6(1) 6-0 in 89 minutes.

It was another gutsy win for the 24-year-old Kiwi as she was able to break Zakharova when she was serving for the first set and never looked back after that.

Sun cruised through that set’s tiebreak, losing just one point and took that momentum into the second set.

Once the Kiwi was up 3-0 in the second set, Zakharova could sense the end was in sight and made a string of unforced errors, while Sun continued to play her aggressive game.

On the first match point, Sun sent a big serve down the middle of the court, with Zakharova’s return going too long.

This victory means Sun has won nine of her last 10 matches. She has also knocked out the No 1 seed in her last three tournaments.

Sun will play the winner of the match between Janice Tjen from Indonesia and China’s Gao Xinyu in the semifinals.

By reaching the semifinals in Jinan, Sun should see her rank jump from 124 to around 114 when they’re next updated, and is getting ever closer to securing a place in the main draw at January’s Australian Open.

If Sun goes on to win this tournament, she may crack the top 100.