Kiwi Lulu Sun celebrates her Guangzhou semi final victory against US's Claire Liu on October 25, 2025. Photo: STR
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.
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.
Sun, the world number 116, started strongly against Liu, breaking her early in the match to grab a 2-0 lead.
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.
The second set, though, was a different story, with Liu, the world number 305, being far more competitive and fully testing the New Zealander.
But Sun held her nerve to close out the match in the second set tiebreaker and move through to the final.
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.
Sun's world ranking in late August was 164.
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.
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