Apart from the last game of the first set, where she unexpectedly had to save some break points, Lulu Sun was never in the slightest trouble in her first round match against qualifier Katarina Jokic at the ITF tournament in Toronto this morning. I think 18 unforced errors into the net from the Serbian player says pretty much everything you need to know. Jokic did hit a beautiful forehand winner down the line to take the second point when she served first, but she followed that with three unforced errors, including a double fault, and that was pretty much that. Sun held to love, getting a game point with a beautiful forehand winner down the line before hitting the first of her four aces. Interestingly, all of them were down the centre when serving to the ad court, which isn’t what you would normally expect from a left-hander.
Sun hit a fabulous backhand return down the left sideline in the next game, and followed that with a fantastic forehand winner down the line to end what was the best, if not the longest, rally of the match after 14 shots. That created a break point, but a nice drop shot from Jokic forced Sun to hit a backhand into the net, and that was where Sun’s returns of the next two serves went as well. Sun held to love again in the next game before Jokic again found herself at deuce, but once more she was able to win the next two points to stay just one break behind. Sun made it three holds to love in the next game, but these points all came off first serves. She then hit another fabulous forehand winner down the line when Jokic served, with the pressure again getting to the latter when more unforced errors cost her another break.
Jokic then lost two good rallies with backhands over the baseline, but she hit a beautiful cross-court backhand volley to get a first break point. Sun saved that with her third ace, but Jokic hit her best shot of the match, a fabulous forehand return down the line, to take the advantage after the deuce. Sun responded with another beautiful forehand winner down the line, but put her next forehand into the net to give Jokic the advantage again. Two forced errors meant that Sun finally had a set point, and she wrapped it up after 37 minutes with a beautiful inside-out forehand winner.
The second set started with the longest rally of the match, even if not quite the quality of the one I mentioned above, but it went on for 19 shots before Jokic hit a cross-court forehand wide, and she finished the game with two more backhands into the net to give Sun an immediate break. The left-hander finished the next game with a beautiful inside-out forehand winner, and then came the longest game of the match. Jokic probably surprised herself as much as anyone else by winning the good rally on the opening point with a backhand volley that caught the line rather than drifting over it, but a forehand into the net from her gave away a deuce. Two good rallies followed, Jokic losing the first with another backhand into the net before winning the second with a beautiful backhand down the line. They traded unforced errors to go to a third deuce, where Jokic got the advantage with a beautiful inside-out forehand winner before Sun hit a forehand over the baseline to end the game after nine minutes and 21 seconds.
From there on, though, it was pretty much one-way traffic. Jokic got broken to love in her next game, the highlight being a beautiful cross-court backhand return from Sun, but Jokic did at least hit two nice winners when Sun served again. The first was a cross-court forehand, but the better one was on the next point when she won a good short rally with a beautiful forehand winner down the line. Sun did have to get through a deuce after Jokic forced her into an error, but Jokic was always going to struggle to hold serve when it mattered most. Two forehand errors from her were followed by a backhand into the net from Sun, but Jokic did the same to give away two match points, and she pushed her final forehand into the tramlines to end the match after an hour and 16 minutes.