Sun, Reynolds, Watt all win in China events
- Dave Worsley
- 28 minutes ago
- 2 min read
New Zealand's Lulu Sun has beaten top seed Anastasia Zakharova to make it to the semifinals at the WTA 125 tournament in Jinan, China.
Sun defeated the Russian Zakharova who has a ranking of 80 by a scored of7-6(1) 6-0 in 89 minutes.
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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 served big 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.
Earlier in the tournament Sun defeated Dutchwoman Ariane Hrtono 6-1 6-2 in the quarterfinals
By reaching the semifinals in Jinan, Sun should see her rank jump from 124 to around 114
Meanwhile in the doubles at the Shenzhen, China the duo of Finn Reynolds and James Watt are into the semifinals of the doubles after a straight set win over Luca Castelnuovo (Switzerland) and Wang Ao-ran (China)
Reynolds and Watt are now both inside the top 100 rankings after winning several Challenger events this year.