23-year-old Te Anau born Lulu Sun has claimed the biggest title of her career, winning the $100,000 World Tennis Tour tournament in Bonita Springs, Florida, USA (29 Apr - 5 May).

In the final, against America’s Maya Joint, Sun produced one of her most impressive performances of the week, winning 6-1 6-3.

Sun had won six WTT tournaments previously, one W80 title, a W50, a W25 and three W15 titles, but this victory stands out as the best moment in her career.

Seeded No 2 for the tournament, Sun went in as one of the favourites and she showed she was able to handle the expectation that goes along with that. 

In the final against the 18-year-old Joint, Sun won 83 per cent of the points when she got her first serve in and managed to break her opponent five times.

Sun is anticipated to climb to a career-high world ranking of around 132 by winning in Bonita Springs, which takes her closer to making it onto the direct acceptance lists for grand slams.

After winning the singles at this tournament, Sun was back on court later in the day for the doubles final, where she and her Hungarian partner Fanny Stollar defeated Valentini Grammatikopoulou from Greece and Ukraine’s Valeriya Strakhova 6-4 7-5 to make it a perfect day for the Te Anau born Sun.

Although Pannu wasn’t able to claim the title, it was an excellent week for him and it will no doubt be a confidence boost to make it all the way to the final.

Sun’s doubles ranking is expected to improve by about 100 spot to take her to around 323 when the rankings are next released.