Having celebrated many historic moments in Chinese tennis, the red clay of Roland Garros might have just witnessed the rise of the nation”s next big thing.
Even without any of its senior stars making a deep run, China still turned heads on the final weekend at this year’s upset-laden French Open, with teen talent Sun Xinran’s appearance in the girls’ tournament final serving up notice of its next future star.
Fifteen-year-old Sun’s breakout run in Paris made her the first Chinese player to reach a junior final at Roland Garros, and has propelled her to the No 1 spot on the International Tennis Federation’s junior world rankings this week, despite her straight-sets loss to 17-year-old Alisa Oktiabreva in the championship match on Saturday.
Seeded second in the girls’ draw, Sun carried on her recent hot form as she stormed through five straight matches, conceding only one set en route to the final, where the gap in strength and experience between herself and Russian-born Oktiabreva, who’s already a regular on the WTA circuit, proved too great to surmount.
The Chinese prodigy, however, has taken the loss in her stride, displaying a maturity that will stand her in good stead when she faces the ups and downs of the pro stage.
“Of course, I felt a bit disappointed not being able to win it all, but I have a better understanding where I need to improve,” said Sun, who’s become the third Chinese player to ascend to the female junior No 1 spot, following Wang Xiyu in September 2018 and Xu Shilin in October 2014.
“I couldn’t accept even a little bit of failure in the past, but playing through setbacks at the international level taught me to embrace it with a positive mindset and always set my sights on the next opportunity.
“After all, tennis will be my job in the future.”
One it looks like she will be good at.
Born in Shenzhen, a hub of domestic and international tennis tournaments in Guangdong province, Sun’s journey in the sport began at six years old. She started training as an amateur influenced by her mother, an avid tennis fan, who then offered her full support when, at age 11, Sun said she wanted to take it to the next step.
“It was my own idea, 80 percent, give or take, and the other 20 percent was the support of my family,” Sun said of her early commitment to the sport — something that could, for an ordinary family, be viewed as a bold gamble back then.
Despite the financial pressure of supporting her travel and training expenses while competing on the ITF tour and entry-level senior circuit, Sun’s parents pulled out all the stops to enable their daughter to unleash her full sporting potential at every stage, while making sure her education kept up as well.
Traveling across the world on a weekly basis for competitions on ITF’s tightly-scheduled junior tour, Sun has managed to stay on top of her school work at the Shenzhen Hongshan Middle School via online tutoring at restaurants, on her way to the airport or in her hotel room.
“I’ve actually got used to (this) life,” said Sun, who’s racked up 24 wins out of 26 matches on the ITF junior circuit, and an additional seven victories in 11 appearances at entry-level ITF senior events and WTA125 tournaments this year. “It is my choice. It’s more than just a hobby, and I am enjoying it very much.”
With the intensity of her game picking up and experience gained on all kinds of surfaces, since early last season, Sun has seen her talent and hard work pay dividends.
She wrote her name in history for the first time in October when she won her first singles title on the ITF Women’s World Tennis Tour in Egypt to become the youngest Chinese winner of an international senior event at 15 years and 95 days old.
Two months later in Florida, Sun won China’s first singles title at the Orange Bowl at Fort Lauderdale, a renowned cradle for future major champions, before picking up another confidence boost by winning her first match on the WTA125 circuit earlier last month, beating a world top-200 senior in Lina Gjorcheska in Istanbul to become the youngest Chinese player to secure a win at that level.
Back-to-back clay-court title runs at J300 in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, and J500 in Milan in the lead-up to the French Open kept Sun in winning form to introduce herself, big time, at Roland Garros last week.
Now, having left her own mark at the clay-court mecca where legend Li Na won Asia’s first singles major trophy in 2011 and her senior compatriot Zheng Qinwen delivered Olympic gold for the nation at Paris 2024, Sun said she is daring to dream big, but is doing so by taking it one small step at a time.
“The junior world No 1 doesn’t really guarantee anything,” said a composed Sun. “I just hope it will earn me more wildcard entries into even more senior tournaments.
“Only by testing myself against higher-level opponents can I make a smoother transition from the junior circuit to the professional tour,” said Sun. “That’s what my goal will be.”
