Unbroken Sun serves 21 aces in gutsy Monterrey loss

Lulu Sun went down fighting in her 7-6(2) 7-6(5) loss to Linda Noskova in the first round of the WTA 500 tournament in Monterrey, Mexico.

In a rematch of last year’s final, Noskova, from the Czech Republic, was again the victor but Sun put up a gutsy performance against a player now ranked 79 places higher than her.

It was one of Sun’s best serving performances of the year. She didn’t have her serve broken in the entire match and sent down 21 aces, double faulting just twice.

Noskova was able to take control of the first set tiebreak early, but it was a much tighter battle in the second set. 

Sun, who fought back from being a mini break down in it early on, served three aces in it, including one on match point.

She went on to have a set point but couldn’t convert it and when Noskova had her second match point, Sun hit the ball long after a long rally.

Despite the loss, it was another match where Sun showed she’s getting back to her best form after struggling to recover from a significant injury at the beginning of the year.

Sun, who won two matches in qualifying to make it into the main draw, will drop to around 164 in the world rankings when they are next updated, but the cut-off for the US Open has already passed, so she will be in the main draw in New York.

The 24-year-old will have to play in more qualifying draws or lower level tournaments to get her ranking back up, but she showed during her three matches in Monterrey that she certainly has the form and game to achieve that.