the addict wrote:

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I remember Chris Lewis - saw his semi-final against Kevin Curren. Lewis reached the final and only played one seed before the semi - Denton in the first round. Mac saw him off in the final easily though.

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 Some said that final was McEnroe best ever performance, sublime Grass play - maybe his demolition of Connors in the final beat it the following year. 

GAMEOVER wrote:

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JonH comes home wrote:

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foobarbaz wrote:

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Well I thought Lulu Sun played mostly flawless tennis today, a good strong serve, lots of power on both wings, some tremendous angles from the southpaw, ruthless with anything short, good footwork, taking balls out of the air with ease, a cracking forehand, and ice-cold shot selection. Emma has played better, but she was a bit flummoxed by the angles from Lulu Sun. Emma was well beaten, as was under what seemed like continuous press from the off. No shame in that, for Raducanu, being beaten by the better player on the day.

Emma will be back, stronger and more experienced. Not bad getting three good wins. Who would have thought a New Zealander would emerge like this, Lulu might do more damage yet. Go on Lulu, win it.

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 Of course, on the mens side, Chris Lewis was a Wimbledon finalist in 1983 and Onny Parun in Australian Open in 1973. NZ tennis has been pretty quiet since but with those two and players like Russell Simpson, they did have a period when NZ tennis was prominent. Recently, the odd doubles player like Michael Venus. 

Not sure they have ever had a woman player of note. 

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 Belinda Cordwell from New Zealand lost in the semi finals in 3 sets to Helena Sukova in the 1989 Australian Open. 

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 And more recently Marina Erakovic, who won 2 doubles titles with Heather Watson.

She is a pure delight!

PaulM wrote:

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She's a great personality - Navarro was very poor, shame after taking out Gauff.

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 I saw Navarro in last years Ilkley final losing to Bjorklund. Her game was efficient and steady but Im quite amazed at her rise to this ranking level -  nothing there to show she would have got this high 

9vicman wrote:

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kundalini wrote:

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I watched the end of the 2nd set, Vekic with a crazy number of dfs as she failed to serve out the set, then broke with a delightful drop shot. 3rd set Lulu Sun could barely get a return in play, regardless of whether it was 1st or 2nd. If you attack Lulu Sun she really does not look that special at all.

Emma's decision to play so passively against Lulu Sun is just beyond my comprehension unless her injuries were seriously restricting what she could do. I watched Lulu Sun's match against Lin Zhu; it was clear from that match that Emma needed to deploy her weapons, instead she did the complete opposite.

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 I think that's a bit harsh on Lulu Sun, who in press afterwards admitted she started cramping towards the end of the second set and didn't have energy left. I think she's quite the talent and fully deserving of her new ranking.

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As a qualifier this was Lulu Sun's 7th match, 4 of which were 3 set matches so it is not too surprising she was running out of energy at the end. She had played more tennis than anyone else in the tournament.

9vicman wrote:

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GAMEOVER wrote:

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JonH comes home wrote:

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foobarbaz wrote:

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Well I thought Lulu Sun played mostly flawless tennis today, a good strong serve, lots of power on both wings, some tremendous angles from the southpaw, ruthless with anything short, good footwork, taking balls out of the air with ease, a cracking forehand, and ice-cold shot selection. Emma has played better, but she was a bit flummoxed by the angles from Lulu Sun. Emma was well beaten, as was under what seemed like continuous press from the off. No shame in that, for Raducanu, being beaten by the better player on the day.

Emma will be back, stronger and more experienced. Not bad getting three good wins. Who would have thought a New Zealander would emerge like this, Lulu might do more damage yet. Go on Lulu, win it.

---

 Of course, on the mens side, Chris Lewis was a Wimbledon finalist in 1983 and Onny Parun in Australian Open in 1973. NZ tennis has been pretty quiet since but with those two and players like Russell Simpson, they did have a period when NZ tennis was prominent. Recently, the odd doubles player like Michael Venus. 

Not sure they have ever had a woman player of note. 

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 Belinda Cordwell from New Zealand lost in the semi finals in 3 sets to Helena Sukova in the 1989 Australian Open. 

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 And more recently Marina Erakovic, who won 2 doubles titles with Heather Watson.

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 Not a singles player and watching the womens doubles at Wimbledon but Erin Routliffe a New Zealander is currently ranked world no 3 in doubles.

-- Edited by GAMEOVER on Wednesday 10th of July 2024 04:13:28 PM

Sun seems to be a recent Kiwi. Her only ever appearance at a NZ tournament was at Auckland at the start of this year, where she played qualies - which would seem like rough treatment if she was considered to be their leading singles player at the time. She played for them in the BJK cup later in the spring, presumably after deciding that she was unlikely tp be selected for any of the several other teams she might have chosen.

So its not like she's been hanging around NZ, knocking a tennis ball against a wall while hoping a practice partner might turn up. She's been training in Switzerland and Slovakia, associated with a coaching stables that has produced numerous GS champs; previously was at American college; and her first tournaments were played in Spain, so presumably spent some time at a clay court academy as a youngster.

She won the Loughborough 50K in Feb, and has also beaten Hev twice and KB over the last year or so.