Lulu Sun edged out by world No 8 Zheng Qinwen at Indian Wells

Lulu Sun put up a brave battle in her 6-4 7-5 loss to world No 8 Zheng Qinwen in the third round of the Indian Wells on Sunday (Monday NZ time).

In a rematch of their clash at Wimbledon last year, it was another close battle between the two players, with Zheng edging it this time. 

But despite this loss, it has been a good tournament for the 23-year-old Sun, who won back-to back matches for the first time this year and should move back inside the top 40 from the points picked up in the Californian desert. 

The match started after 9pm local time and Sun began the match playing well, matching her opponent’s power.

But in the fifth game she made a couple of unforced errors and on break point, Zheng powered a forehand winner in the corner. 

However, Sun wasn’t behind for long as she put pressure on her opponent in the next game, who double faulted on breakpoint.

Sun suffered an unfortunate slip in the following game as she was broken again and this time the Chinese player was able to consolidate the break and went on to take the set.

The Kiwi was broken again in the opening game of the next set and not long after she was serving at 0-40 and 0-2, but she then went on to win five straight points and break Zheng to get the set to 2-2.

The players swapped further breaks later in the set, with Sun showing real grit to stay in the battle against the No 8 seed. That was especially the case after Zheng got another break, then served for the match, only to be broken again.

But a few minutes later Zheng was once more serving for the match and this time she held her nerve.

Sun recently decided it was time to move on from Vlado Platenik as her coach and he has since teamed up with Emma Raducanu on a trial basis through to next month’s French Open.

But the change looked to have freshened Sun up as this was a more than respectable week for her and she has something to build on for Miami.

Meanwhile, earlier in the day Erin Routliffe and Gaby Dabrowski had a close loss in the second round of the women’s doubles at Indian Wells.

The No 2 seeds were defeated 7-6(4) 7-5 by Anna Kalinskaya from Russia and America’s Caty McNally. 

In the men’s doubles, Michael Venus and Nikola Mektic from Croatia have been drawn against the Italian singles specialists Matteo Berrettini and Lorenzo Sonego in the opening  round.