Sun fights hard in Beijing after a month away

Lulu Sun put up a huge fight in her first singles match in a month, but lost 6-1 7-6(4) to Ashlyn Krueger from the States in the second round of the China Open on Saturday.

Thirty one days ago Sun was forced to pull out of her first-round match against Lucia Bronzetti at the US Open after one set, because of a hip injury and this was the first time she’d been able to enter a tournament since then.

Having been given a first-round bye in Beijing as the No 29 seed, Sun had to play the tricky American Krueger in her opening match. Krueger had an impressive win over China’s Wang Yafan in the opening round and she took that form into the beginning of this match and looked to attack Sun when returning, putting huge pressure on her lefty serve.

However, by the second set, Sun found her groove and it was a close battle from then on. Sun had to save two match points when serving at 4-5 which she managed to do.

She also had to battle back from being down 0-30 two games later, winning four points in a row to take the set into a tiebreak.

This was also tight as the score went to 4-4, but the 20-year-old American won the next three points to advance to the third round.

Meanwhile, Michael Venus and Neal Skupski from Britain also lost in Beijing on Saturday, going down 6-2 6-7(4) 10-7 to the Italian duo of Flavio Cobolli and Lorenzo Musetti in the men’s doubles.

Erin Routliffe is still to play her first-round match in the women’s doubles with Canada’s Gaby Dabrowski.

Routliffe and Dabrowski are the top seeds but have been given a tricky draw as they play Wang Xinyu and Hsieh Su-Wei in the opening round.