- Sun Tiantian
Infobox Tennis player
playername= Sun Tiantian
country=
residence=Beijing , China
datebirth= birth date and age|1981|10|12
placebirth=Henan , China
height= 5' 9in (1.75 m)
weight= 143 1/2 lbs. (65 kg)
turnedpro= 1999
plays= Right-handed;
two-handed backhand
careerprizemoney=US$ 982,672
singlesrecord= 210–149
singlestitles= 1 WTA, 6 ITF Titles
highestsinglesranking= No. 77 (March 19 ,2007 )
AustralianOpenresult= 1st (2006)
FrenchOpenresult= 2nd (2006)
Wimbledonresult= 2nd (2004, 2006)
USOpenresult= 2nd (2005)
doublesrecord= 246–134
doublestitles= 12 (13 ITF titles)
highestdoublesranking= No. 16 (October 22 ,2007 )
updated=September 22 ,2008 Sun Tiantian (
Simplified Chinese : 孙甜甜;pinyin : Sūn Tiántián; bornOctober 12 ,1981 inHenan province) is a Chinese female tennis player.Career
In September
2000 , she won two successive $10,000 ITF singles titles, a feat she would repeat in June2001 , when she won another two back-to-back.In
2002 , she found repeat success at the next level up, winning two $25,000 tournaments: firstly in April, at Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam (beating countrywomanZheng Jie in the semi-final and KoreanMi Ra Jeon in the final); and then in August at Beijing (beatingZheng Jie in the semi-final again, andRika Fujiwara of Japan in the final)In
2003 , she reached the final of a $50,000 tournament at Modena despite entering as a lucky loser to countrywomanYan Zi in the final round of qualifying. Having defeated several high-quality opponents in the forms ofMartina Sucha ,Maret Ani andGala Leon Garcia , she lost in the final againstMelinda Czink .This year, she also gained entry into several WTA tournaments, most notably coming through qualifying at Doha by defeating
Yuliana Fedak ,Lubomira Kurhajcova andMaria Sanchez Lorenzo , only to lose in the deciding set of her opening round match againstNicole Pratt ; and at the U.S. Open after a narrow victory overSelima Sfar , only to lose toSaori Obata at the first hurdle in the main draw. But she finished the year world-ranked 141.In
2004 , she qualified for theAustralian Open after a win overRoberta Vinci , then qualified for Doha for the second year running. She went on to record impressive wins overEva Birnerova andSandra Kleinova to qualify for Miami; and overCamille Pin andMara Santangelo to qualify for Amelia Island, where she also beatCara Black in the main draw first round. At Wimbledon, she qualified with a win over Barbara Schwartz and won her first-round tie againstTathiana Garbin before succumbing toAnne Kremer in Round Two. At the end of the year, she lost in a tight three-set final in the first $50,000 Shenzhen tournament to on-form countrywoman Li Na, 3–6 6–4 2–6. Her year-end ranking had improved to 118.Sun also competed in the
2004 Summer Olympics , defeatingConchita Martinez andVirginia Ruano Pascual ofSpain in the women's tennis doubles final to win a gold medal along with her partner Li Ting.In
2005 , she reached her first WTA singles quarter-final at Hyderabad, defeatingTamarine Tanasugarn 6–2 6–1 in the second round before losing a close match against prominent German playerAnna-Lena Groenefeld 6–7 3–6. After a relatively barren Spring season marked by several near-misses in qualifying, she again made her mark in August: both at Los Angeles, where she took French starMarion Bartoli to three sets in the second round, and in the U.S. Open, where she qualified with convincing straight-sets wins overMarlene Weingartner andLudmila Cervanova and went on to defeatSamantha Stosur 6–3 7–6 in the first round of the main draw before succumbing toAnabel Medina Garrigues of Spain. But her career-best win to date was yet to come the following month atBeijing , where she defeated former #1 playerSerena Williams in the 2nd Round after an easy first-round victory overTatiana Panova of Russia, only to be outperformed in her second WTA quarter-final by rising starMaria Kirilenko . This run of results propelled her to a career-best world ranking of 88; but by the close of the year she had slipped back slightly to #105.Early in
2006 , Sun suffered some extremely tough draws, but fought every inch of the way in tight three-set losses toAmélie Mauresmo in the first round of the Australian Open andNuria Llagostera Vives in the first round at Gold Coast, only to lose in qualifying for Doha and Dubai.At the
Tashkent Open held inUzbekistan , Sun fought her way pastIroda Tulyaganova in the final to win the first WTA title of her career and became only the fourth Chinese woman to win a WTA title. On9 October ,2006 , she moved to a new career high of No.81 and is currently the Chinese No.4.She is one of only two active players (the other is
Sybille Bammer of Austria) to have a winning record againstSerena Williams . In their only meeting, she defeated Williams 6–2, 7–6(7) in the Round of 16 at Beijing in 2005.On
January 27 ,2008 , Sun captured her first Grand Slam title when she won the Australian Open mixed doubles crown, partnering withNenad Zimonjić of Serbia. The pair defeatedSania Mirza andMahesh Bhupathi of India 7–6(4), 6–4. They won the title with their fifth championship point.WTA Tour titles (13)
Singles wins (1)
Grand Slam mixed doubles title (1)
Wins (1)
See also
*
References
External links
*wta|id=190817|name=Sun Tiantian
* [http://en.ce.cn/National/pic-news/200408/23/t20040823_1572026.shtml Chinese duo win Olympic tennis gold] China Daily 2004-08-23
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