Sun storms past Liu to reach second WTA Tour final

Lulu Sun is into the second WTA Tour-level final of her career, following a 6-0 7-6(3) victory over American Claire Liu in Guangzhou, China, on Saturday night.

Her only previous Tour-level final came in Monterrey, Mexico, last year, where she lost to Linda Noskova. But after six wins this week, including two in qualifying, the Kiwi is now just one victory away from her maiden WTA title.

The first set was all Sun, as she prevented Liu from finding any rhythm by attacking every short ball. Liu managed to win only 17 of the 49 points played as Sun raced through it in dominant fashion.

That momentum carried into the second set, with Sun breaking early to lead 2-0. But the match shifted when Liu finally got on the board and began to settle into her game. From that point, the remainder of the set was tightly contested, with Liu eventually breaking back.

The set went to a tiebreak, and Sun immediately gained the upper hand with a mini-break on the first point. 

She then won the next three points to lead 4-0 before Liu finally got on the scoreboard. At the change of ends, Sun was ahead 5-1.

At 5-2, Liu missed a backhand slice to give Sun multiple match points. The Kiwi needed only two of them, sealing victory by driving a deep shot to Liu’s backhand that the American couldn’t retrieve.

It was a tale of two very different sets in a match lasting one hour and 53 minutes, and Sun admitted afterwards that her quick start took her by surprise.

“Honestly, I didn’t expect to come out like that,” Sun said.

“Claire’s a really good player, so I knew she wasn’t going to give up after the first set, and I really had to dig deep once she came back. At the end of the day, it was all about fighting, and I did my best on that part.”

In Sunday’s final, Sun will face the winner of the other semifinal between second seed Ann Li of the United States and China’s Zhang Shuai.

By reaching the final, Sun is projected to rise to around No 87 in the world rankings when they’re next updated, a position that guarantees her a spot in the main draw of January’s Australian Open. A title win in Guangzhou could lift her as high as No 71.