Sun Shengnan

Infobox Tennis player
playername = Sun Shengnan


country = CHN
residence = ?
datebirth = birth date and age|1987|1|21
placebirth = ?
height = ?
weight = ?
turnedpro = ?
retired = "Active"
plays = ?
careerprizemoney = $143,611
singlesrecord =
singlestitles =
highestsinglesranking = No. 233 (28 May 2007)
AustralianOpenresult =
FrenchOpenresult =
Wimbledonresult =
USOpenresult =
doublesrecord = ?
doublestitles = ?
highestdoublesranking = No. 50 (17 September 2007)
updated = June 26, 2008

Sun Shengnan (born 21 January 1987) is a Chinese female tennis player.

By March 2006, she had won "two" ITF singles titles and risen to #320 in the WTA Tour rankings, and had earned herself a reputation as 'one to watch', having shown plenty of recent promise of further improvement in the preceding year.

Career

Sun Shengnan began competing on the ITF circuit at the age of fifteen in May 2002, and in the next few months won seven matches (mostly in qualifying draws) for the loss of just five, but did not compete again for a whole year after the beginning of August, and thus gained for herself only a lowly end-of-year foothold on the world ranking list at #1031.

When August finally came around again in 2003, she returned to competition as a sixteen year-old at ITF events; and that October she reached the quarter-final of a $25,000 tournament at Beijing after being awarded a wildcard entry into the main draw, before losing to Yuka Yoshida. She finished the year with a 5–5 win-loss record after just a few events played. The record of her year-end ranking seems to have been lost by the WTA, but it was undoubtedly an improvement on her 2002 outcome thanks to the quarter-final finish at Beijing.

2004 was another moderate year for Sun, as she won six matches and lost seven, her best finish again coming at October's $25,000 tournament at Beijing, where she repeated her previous year's performance in reaching the quarter-final, this time losing to high-ranked countrywoman Zheng Jie. She finished the year world-ranked 588, which logically should have been similar to her previous year's finish.

But it was to be in 2005 that the Chinese teenager would first break through to greater results, including two tournament wins. In February, she reached her career-first semi-final in the $10,000 tournament at Melilla. In April, she won the $10,000 event at Wuhan. Then in May, she won another $10,000 title at Ahmedabad. In August, she reached the final of a $25,000 fixture at Wuxi, losing to Miho Saeki of Japan. Then in September, she qualified for her first WTA Tour event at Guangzhou with an impressive three-set victory over the young Croat prospect Ivana Lisjak, but lost in the first round of the main draw to Alina Jidkova of Russia. At the end of the year, her world ranking had leapt up to 336.

In January 2006, she suffered a few early losses, but picked up enough points in qualifying rounds to improve to a career-best ranking of 311 early in February. Then she defended but did not improve upon her previous year's semi-final performance at Melilla.

With youth still very much on her side, the 19-year-old appeared to be one of China's hottest next-generation prospects for advancement into the world's Top 150. But after rising to a career high of No. 233 in May 2007, a dismal run of early losses over the summer and Autumn that year caused her ranking to slip back to No. 400 by the beginning of December the same year before a quarterfinal result at a $75,000 tournament that month revived it to around 350 at the close of the year. With her 21st birthday on the immediate horizon, she still has plenty of time ahead to reach her full potential.

See also

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References

External links

*wta|id=310798|name=Shengnan, Sun