With her match starting when Michael Venus and Jamie Murray were already well underway in Paris, I couldn’t really do much more than glance at Lulu Sun’s second qualifying round contest against Louisa Chirico in Midland. I didn’t even get a chance to look at the end of it, either, as the two matches finished at the same time. Sun broke Chirico’s serve to love in the opening game, and held to love to consolidate the break. Chirico then held serve for what would be the only time in the set, but she had plenty of chances in the next game to break back. By the time they got to about the fourth deuce I was wondering if I should have written down the time the game started, because they ended up having eight of them, and Chirico had been unable to convert any of her five break points. Chirico only managed to save one break point in the next game, but had another when Sun served again. Once more she was unable to stop the left-hander from holding serve, and she lost her own again to end the set after 32 minutes.
Sun raced through the second set as well, winning the first five games with what seemed like only token opposition, but Chirico did much better when it looked like she would be bagelled to end the match. She saved match points before the first and second deuces, and held after the third to ensure that Sun would actually have to serve out the match. It took her two attempts but, when I looked up to see how it had ended, they were already off the court, and it was up to the final point in the Paris doubles. Sun won 6-1, 6-1, her match taking an hour and two minutes.