Lulu Sun says win over Zheng Qinwen was for New Zealand

Lulu Sun says her victory over world No 8 Zheng Qinwin, wasn’t just a win for her, but for New Zealand.

The Te Anau-born Sun, defeated this year’s Australian Open finalist 4-6 6-2 6-4 for the biggest victory of her life, while making her the main talking point for the first day of Wimbledon.

The 23-year-old Sun switched allegiance to New Zealand in March and she said afterwards that she hoped her victory will inspire tennis players back in the country of her birth.

“It’s a huge win for me and it’s a huge win for New Zealand as well,” Sun said. 

“It goes to show that with hard work you can pull through anything. But it also gives a view to the younger generation that these New Zealanders can push through on the big stages."

When Sun played at the ASB Classic in January she was ranked 219 in the world. This victory should put her inside the top 100 and she says her rise is down to how she’s worked with her coaching team this year.

“With my team we’ve been progressing throughout the months, as well as preseason, in different terms, like my game, my fitness, how I handle things and how I view the game,” she said.

“So I’ve slowly been improving and gaining more experience through these months.

I definitely think that helped and also after college I was able to go full-time and hone in on tennis.”

Ranked 123 in the world, the 23-year-old from Te Anau played well beyond that level to defeat Zheng, who reached the final of the Australian Open this year.

The match was scheduled to be played on Court 18, but because of a chain reaction caused by Aryna Sabalenka pulling out, it got moved to the bigger Court 3, which holds 2000 spectators.

Sun didn’t show any signs of nerves of playing against a player of Zheng’s reputation, or at being on a court bigger than she expected to play on.

She looked comfortable battling it out on the rallies against Zheng, but also took opportunities to finish off points quickly. 

In the first set, Sun was broken at 2-2, but then broke straight back. However, she failed to hold serve in the following game, which was the key moment in the set.

At 1-1 in the second set, Sun was down 0-40 and a break here would have put Sun in big trouble.

But after serving back-to-back aces she stormed her way through the rest of the game to hold serve.

Sun went on to have a break point at 2-3 and Zheng blasted way too long with a short forehand. Then with the Chinese player serving at 2-5, she fell behind 15-40.

The Kiwi missed her return on the first set point. But on the second Zheng overhit a forehand, taking the match into a third set.

Zheng needed to go for a toilet break to compose herself after that, but it was Sun who looked the stronger player throughout the third set.

Zheng served at 30-40 at 1-2, but Sun’s return was just too deep. Despite that, Sun stayed confident, winning the next game to love.

Sun had another break point with Zheng serving at 2-3, but couldn’t control a big second serve and again Zheng ended up holding.

However, when serving at 4-5 Zheng struggled to cope with the pressure, despite having far more experience at this level and she double-faulted at 0-15 and then again at 0-40, to give Sun the biggest win of her career.