Lulu Sun put up a brave fight in her 6-4 7-6(5) loss to Wimbledon finalist Amanda Anisimova in the second round of the WTA 1000 tournament in Montreal, Canada on Wednesday (Thursday NZ time).
After defeating Sorana Cirstea 6-3 7-5 in the opening round, The Kiwi No 1 wasn’t able to get a win against an opponent who won six matches at Wimbledon earlier this month, including a victory over world No 1, Aryna Sabalenka.
The first set of the match between Sun and the American Anisimova was a tight battle, with a break for each player, but Sun was broken again when serving at 4-5.
The second set was also a close battle with a break for each player, before it went into a tiebreak.
Once again, there was little between the two players, but Anisimova was able to just edge it out in the tiebreak, to stop the match going to a deciding set.
While Sun will be disappointed her run at Montreal has come to and end, her win over Cirstea and this narrow loss to one of the most in-form players in the world right now, shows that the 24-year-old is heading back in the right direction after a patchy start to 2025.
Meanwhile, Erin Routliffe and Gaby Dabrowski suffered a surprise loss in the first round of the doubles in Montreal, going down 7-6(5) 3-6 10-7 to the American duo of Caroline Dolehide and Sofia Kenin.
It is the second week in a row that Routliffe has lost to Dolehide and Kenin. Last week when partnering with Asia Muhammad she went down 7-6(4) 6-4 in the semifinals in Washington.