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Qualifier Lulu Sun saw her Wimbledon dreams dimmed by the experienced Croatian Donna Vekic as she lost 5-7 6-4 6-1 in the quarter-finals.
Victory meant Vekic reached her maiden Grand Slam semi-final and became only the second woman from her nation to do so at the All England Club as she matched Mirjana Lucic’s 1999 feat, but it was not all smooth sailing for the unseeded 28-year-old.
“It was a really tough match, she played unbelievable, I feel like she really pushed me to my limits,” said an emotional Vekic.
“I felt like I was dying out there in the first two sets but I just kept going, hoping to have a chance and it came in the end.
“I have a full box of people there and I wouldn’t be here without them.”
Sun, 23, who played college tennis at the University of Texas, was making her debut at the grasscourt tournament and is the first player from New Zealand to reach the Wimbledon quarter-finals in the Open era.
However, on a soggy Tuesday at Wimbledon, she found herself under early pressure but saved three break points in a marathon, 10-deuce fourth game.
Having survived that, Sun began to attack the Vekic serve and it told when she broke for 6-5 before a gutsy hold clinched the set.
Sun looked by far the more composed player but Vekic gathered herself in the second set and secured a break in the eighth game.
But the nerves were still showing, and three double faults at deuce gave Sun three break points.
Vekic saved the first two but then dunked an ill-advised drop shot into the net to gift Sun the game.
However, when a set point arrived in the next game on the Sun serve, the drop shot worked a treat and the match was level.
Sun was playing her eighth match of the fortnight, and it showed at the start of the third set as Vekic won 12 straight points.
In the blink of an eye it was 5-0, and, despite gamely getting on the board, Sun finally went down at Wimbledon in two hours and eight minutes.
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