Lulu Sun takes positives from doubles loss at Australian Open

Lulu Sun’s time at the Australian Open came to an end on Wednesday night as she and her partner Fanny Stollar lost in the first round of the women’s doubles.

Sun and Stollar, from Hungary, were unfortunate with the draw and had to play against top seeds Taylor Townsend from the United States and the Czech Republic’s Katerina Siniakova.

Despite a valiant effort, they lost 6-2 6-4, in a match impacted by rain delays, the last being for three hours.

In the first set, Sun served well, but Stollar was broken twice. The second set was on serve at 3-4 with Siniakova serving before the longest rain delay of the match.

When play resumed after 8pm Melbourne time, Siniakova got a quick hold, Sun was broken after a lengthy battle and then Townsend served it out.

It was always going to be a big ask to defeat one of the best doubles teams in the world, which includes the current No 1, Siniakova.

So Sun wasn’t too disappointed afterwards and thought she played well.

“I thought at least from my part, I was serving well, I was holding,” Sun said. 

“Apart from the last game on my serve, I held all my service games. I did pretty good with a couple of bullies coming into the net. 

“It was just tough in the beginning, my partner wasn't really feeling the ball, and so it was quite tough to manage it, to get a closer game.”

Aside from the two times Stollar was broken in the opening set, there was nothing between the two teams in all the other games. Had the rain not interrupted the match when it did, the outcome of it could have been different.

“You could see they weren't really comfortable in most of the rallies that we played, we were getting better momentum and better feel in the second set,” Sun said. 

“But then we kept stopping. So it was tough to keep going like that. In the last two games we played, they really came out and played a solid game, especially on their service their last service game.

It was more noticeable after the last rain delay that Siniakova and Townsend weren’t necessarily better players, but had more experience together.

“They've been a team for quite a while, and they've played a lot,” Sun said. 

“So to be honest, I think it was quite a close match. A lot of the games that we played were quite close, and there are some solid points as well. 

“I was feeling better hitting the ball (than in the singles against Danka Kovinic). So it was definitely a positive match.”