Lulu Sun storms back for victory in Madrid

Lulu Sun showed resilience at the Madrid Open, coming back from a set down for the first time this year at a WTA tournament to defeat France’s Varvara Gracheva 3-6, 6-1, 6-4 on Tuesday (Wednesday NZ time).

The New Zealand No 1 regained some of her confidence by helping her country get to the World Group playoffs in the Billie Jean King Cup two weeks ago and she drew upon that in her victory over Gracheva from France. 

The match lasted six minutes short of two hours and was one where Sun demonstrated the great determination she has to advance to the second round of this WTA 1000 tournament. 

There was just one break of serve in the first set, but the Kiwi dominated the second set, winning twice as many points as Gracheva — 28 to 14.

The third set was an intense battle with Sun saving five of the six break points against her. But she was able to break Gracheva for the second time in the set towards the end of it and then continued to keep her nose in front for the remainder of the match.

Sun and Gracheva played each other at the ASB Classic in January, with Gracheva winning 6-3 6-4 on that occasion, so this result is another sign that Sun is heading in the right direction.

In the second round Sun will play against the No 32 seed Sofia Kenin from the United States. They have played against each other once before, with Kenin victorious 4-6 6-3 6-3 in Hobart, the week after the ASB Classic.