Lulu Sun is into the second round of the US Open, following a 6-4 2-6 6-0 win over Camila Osorio from Colombia.
It is Sun’s first win at a grand slam since she defeated Britain’s Emma Raducanu on Centre Court at Wimbledon last year.
Although Sun has dropped out of the world’s top 150, she showed that this wasn’t a true representation of her ability as she over-powered her opponent, stayed aggressive and moved quickly around the court.
Osorio picked up an ankle injury towards the end of the match, but by then Sun was already well on her way towards a victory.
Sun got off to a great start in this match getting two early breaks in the opening set.
She felt some pressure when serving for the set and made a couple of errors and was broken.
Osorio saved set points in the next game, but Sun eventually captured the set, clinching it with a serve out wide on the ad side that Osorio couldn’t get back.
Sun was broken in the second game of the next set, as Osorio built on the momentum she had recently picked up.
As the shadows crept across Court 5, Osorio stayed on a roll, breaking Sun again for a 4-0 lead.
The set turned with Sun showing her tenacity and breaking to love in the next game, but she had too much ground to make up at that point and the match became level when Sun put a smash into the net on set point.
Despite losing the second set, Sun was able to regather herself for the decider and went up a double break for a 3-0 lead.
At 30-30 in the next game, Osorio fell over going for a ball out wide and rolled her ankle. She played one more point, which Sun won, then called for the physio.
Osorio was in tears as she waited, while Sun went over to have a chat with her coach.
After a lengthy break, the Colombian headed back to the baseline to start her next service game.
However, she wasn’t in any state to be competitive, getting broken to love and Sun completed the match with an ace.
In the second round, on Thursday NZ time, Sun will play against the winner of the match between No 19 seed Elise Mertens from Belgium and Alyssa Ahn from the United States.