Lulu Sun Into Monterrey Semifinals, World's Top 50

Lulu Sun is into the semi-finals of a WTA tournament for the first time in her career, following the 6-4 6-3 win over Russia’s Erika Andreeva in Monterrey, Mexico on Thursday (Friday NZ time).

The win continues the remarkable run Sun has been on since switching nationalities to New Zealand in March and this victory is expected to move her to 48 in the world rankings when they are next released, and she’ll crack the top 50 for the first time in her career.

Although this was a routine win for Sun, it was a tight opening to the match.

Neither player had a breakpoint in the first six games, but Sun broke to love in the seventh, with Andreeva missing with a slice at 0-40.

Games then went with serve and at 5-4, Sun got out to a 40-0 lead and on the next point, she put in a big serve that the Russian couldn’t return.

Andreeva left the court to receive medical treatment on her back before the second set began, but she showed no signs of discomfort once the match resumed.

However, Sun kept the pressure on Andreeva, hitting the ball deep and giving her opponent little to work with.

Andreeva struggled to deal with this, and when serving at 2-2 she double-faulted on break point.

At 3-5 on Andreeva’s serve, Sun had three match points. She went long with a crosscourt backhand on the first, Andreeva hit a winner on the second, but on the third, the Russian put a backhand into the net.

Sun, who survived a match point in her second-round win over Maria Lourdes Carle, lost just four points on her serve in the second set, and there were only four occasions when she didn’t get her first serve in, which highlighted how well she was playing.

In the semi-finals, Sun will play the winner of the match between Ekaterina Alexandrova from Russia and China’s Yuan Yue.

Meanwhile, Sun has been drawn against Lucia Bronzetti from Italy in the first round of the US Open.

They played against each other earlier this month in the second round of qualifying at the Cincinnati Open, with Sun winning 7-6(4) 6-3.

The winner of that match could play against world No 2 Aryna Sabalenka in the second round.

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