<\/p>\n
\nKiwi Lulu Sun celebrates her Guangzhou semi final victory against US’s Claire Liu on October 25, 2025.
\nPhoto: STR\n<\/p>\n
New Zealand tennis No.1 Lulu Sun has progressed to her second career WTA final, after a solid semi-final win at the Guangzhou Open in southern China.<\/p>\n
Sun won 6-0, 7-6 against American Claire Liu, to book her spot in the final, where she will play another American, Ann Li.<\/p>\n
Sun, the world number 116, started strongly against Liu, breaking her early in the match to grab a 2-0 lead.<\/p>\n
She kicked on nicely as she created six break point opportunities in all during the first set, converting three of them, whilst conceding none in her own service games.<\/p>\n
The second set, though, was a different story, with Liu, the world number 305, being far more competitive and fully testing the New Zealander.<\/p>\n
But Sun held her nerve to close out the match in the second set tiebreaker and move through to the final.<\/p>\n
Sun’s only other appearance in a final at a WTA Tour event was in Monterrey, Mexico, last year, where she lost to Linda Noskova, and follows excellent recent form, which has seen her climb back up the rankings.<\/p>\n
Sun’s world ranking in late August was 164.<\/p>\n
Sun will face the second seed and world number 44 Ann Li in the final, whose opponent, China’s Shuai Zhang, retired at 2-5 in the first set during their semi-final clash.<\/p>\n