Meet China’s next Zheng Qinwen: teen Sun already world No 1, French Open Juniors finalist
Sun Xinran is only 15, but she’s already turning heads in women’s tennis after storming run to Roland Garros final
Chinese tennis may have found its next Zheng Qinwen after teenager Sun Xinran finished runner-up in the girls’ singles at the French Open Juniors on Saturday.
The 15-year-old lost to Russian Alisa Oktiabreva, who is two years her senior, in a lopsided defeat of 6–2, 6–1, which lasted just 65 minutes on clay.
However, Sun’s extended run in Paris, where she was the second seed, lifted her to the top of the junior girls’ world rankings.
Having only dropped one set on her way to the final, Sun heaped praise on her opponent after also losing to Oktiabreva by the same score in February, but the Shenzhen native was already looking to get her own back.
“She is also very young, and it is not easy for her to achieve all this,” said Sun, who also reached the quarter-finals in this year’s Australian Open juniors. “She is not only very hardworking, but also has excellent mental control. There are many things I need to learn from her.
“I used to think that professional tennis was simply about playing tennis and competing, but now I realise that to do it well, there are many other aspects besides tennis.”