Sun Tiantian

This is a Chinese name; the family name is Sun.
Sun Tiantian
孙甜甜
Country (sports)  China
Residence Beijing, China
Born (1981-10-12) 12 October 1981
Zhengzhou, Henan, China
Height 1.75 m (5 ft 9 in)
Turned pro 1999
Retired 2009
Plays Right-handed (two-handed backhand)
Prize money $1,019,657
Singles
Career record 217–156
Career titles 1 WTA, (6 ITF)
Highest ranking No. 77 (19 March 2007)
Grand Slam Singles results
Australian Open 1R (2006, 2007)
French Open 2R (2006)
Wimbledon 2R (2004, 2006)
US Open 2R (2005)
Doubles
Career record 268–154
Career titles 12 WTA (13 ITF)
Highest ranking No. 16 (22 October 2007)
Grand Slam Doubles results
Australian Open QF (2007)
French Open QF (2005)
Wimbledon QF (2007)
US Open 3R (2005)
Mixed doubles
Career titles 1
Grand Slam Mixed Doubles results
Australian Open W (2008)
French Open SF (2007)
Wimbledon 3R (2007, 2004)
US Open 2R (2006)

Sun Tiantian (simplified Chinese: 孙甜甜; traditional Chinese: 孫甜甜; pinyin: Sūn Tiántián; born 12 October 1981) is a Chinese former professional tennis player.

Career

In September 2000, Sun won two successive US$10,000 ITF singles titles, a feat she would repeat in June 2001, when she won another two back-to-back.

In 2002, she found repeat success at the next level up, winning two $25,000 tournaments: firstly in April, at Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam (beating countrywoman Zheng Jie in the semi-final and Korean Jeon Mi-ra in the final); and then in August at Beijing (beating Zheng Jie in the semi-final again, and Rika Fujiwara of Japan in the final)

In 2003, she reached the final of a $50,000 tournament at Modena despite entering as a lucky loser to countrywoman Yan Zi in the final round of qualifying. Having defeated several high-quality opponents in the forms of Martina Suchá, Maret Ani and Gala León García, she lost in the final against Melinda Czink.

This year, she also gained entry into several WTA tournaments, most notably coming through qualifying at Doha by defeating Yuliana Fedak, Ľubomíra Kurhajcová and María Sánchez Lorenzo, only to lose in the deciding set of her opening round match against Nicole Pratt; and at the US Open after a narrow victory over Selima Sfar, only to lose to Saori Obata at the first hurdle in the main draw. But she finished the year ranked World No. 141.

In 2004, she qualified for the Australian Open after a win over Roberta Vinci, then qualified for Doha for the second year running. She went on to record impressive wins over Eva Birnerová and Sandra Kleinová to qualify for Miami; and over Camille Pin and Mara Santangelo to qualify for Amelia Island, where she also beat Cara Black in the main draw first round. At Wimbledon, she qualified with a win over Barbara Schwartz and won her first-round tie against Tathiana Garbin before succumbing to Anne Kremer in Round Two. At the end of the year, she lost in a tight three-set final in the first $50,000 Shenzhen tournament to on-form countrywoman Li Na, 6–3, 4–6, 6–2. Her year-end ranking had improved to World No. 118.

Sun also competed in the 2004 Summer Olympics, defeating Conchita Martínez and Virginia Ruano Pascual of Spain in the women's tennis doubles final to win a gold medal along with her partner Li Ting.

In 2005, she reached her first WTA singles quarter-final at Hyderabad, defeating Tamarine Tanasugarn 6–2, 6–1 in the second round before losing a close match against prominent German player Anna-Lena Grönefeld 7–6, 6–3. After a relatively barren Spring season marked by several near-misses in qualifying, she again made her mark in August: both at Los Angeles, where she took French star Marion Bartoli to three sets in the second round, and in the US Open, where she qualified with convincing straight-sets wins over Marlene Weingärtner and Ľudmila Cervanová and went on to defeat Samantha Stosur 6–3, 7–6 in the first round of the main draw before succumbing to Anabel Medina Garrigues of Spain. But her career-best win to date was yet to come the following month at Beijing, where she defeated former World No. 1 player Serena Williams in the second round after an easy first-round victory over Tatiana Panova of Russia, only to be outperformed in her second WTA quarter-final by rising star Maria Kirilenko. This run of results propelled her to a career-best ranking of World No. 88, but by the close of the year, she had slipped back slightly to World No. 105.

Early in 2006, Sun suffered some extremely tough draws, but fought every inch of the way in tight three-set losses to Amélie Mauresmo in the first round of the Australian Open and Nuria Llagostera Vives in the first round at Gold Coast, only to lose in qualifying for Doha and Dubai.

At the Tashkent Open held in Uzbekistan, Sun fought her way past Iroda Tulyaganova in the final to win the first WTA title of her career and became only the fourth Chinese woman to win a WTA title. On 9 October 2006, she moved to a new career high of World No. 81 and is currently the Chinese No. 4.

She is one of only two active players (the other is Sybille Bammer of Austria) to have a winning record against Serena Williams. In their only meeting, she defeated Williams 6–2, 7–6(7) in the round of 16 at Beijing in 2005.

On 27 January 2008, Sun captured her first Grand Slam title when she won the Australian Open mixed doubles crown, partnering with Nenad Zimonjić of Serbia. The pair defeated Sania Mirza and Mahesh Bhupathi of India 7–6(4), 6–4. They won the title with their fifth championship point.

Major finals

Grand Slam finals

Mixed doubles: 1 (1–0)

Outcome Year Championship Surface Partner Opponents Score
Winner 2008 Australian Open Hard Serbia Nenad Zimonjić India Sania Mirza
India Mahesh Bhupathi
7–6(4), 6–4

Olympic finals

Doubles: 1 final (1 gold medal)

Outcome Year Championship Surface Partner Opponents Score
Gold 2004 Athens Hard China Li Ting Spain Conchita Martínez
Spain Virginia Ruano
6–3, 6–3

WTA Tour singles finals

Singles 1 (1–0)

Legend: Before 2009Legend: Starting in 2009
Grand Slam tournaments (0/0)
WTA Championships (0/0)
Tier I (0/0) Premier Mandatory (0/0)
Tier II (0/0) Premier 5 (0/0)
Tier III (0/0) Premier (0/0)
Tier IV & V (1/0) International (0/0)
Outcome No. Date Tournament Surface Opponent Score
Winner 1. 8 October 2006 Tashkent Hard Uzbekistan Iroda Tulyaganova 6–2, 6–4

WTA Tour doubles finals

Doubles 22 (12–10)

Legend: Before 2009Legend: Starting in 2009
Grand Slam tournaments (0/0)
Olympic Gold (1/0)
WTA Championships (0/0)
Tier I (0/1) Premier Mandatory (0/0)
Tier II (1/1) Premier 5 (0/0)
Tier III (7/3) Premier (0/0)
Tier IV & V (4/3) International (0/1)
Outcome No. Date Tournament Surface Partner Opponents Score
Winner 1. 14 June 2003 Vienna Clay China Li Ting China Yan Zi
China Zheng Jie
6–3, 6–4
Runner-up 1. 12 October 2003 Tashkent Hard China Li Ting Ukraine Yuliya Beygelzimer
Belarus Tatiana Poutchek
6–3, 7–6(7–0)
Winner 2. 2 November 2003 Quebec City Hard(i) China Li Ting Belgium Els Callens
United States Meilen Tu
6–3, 6–3
Winner 3. 9 November 2003 Pattaya City Hard China Li Ting Indonesia Wynne Prakusya
Indonesia Angelique Widjaja
6–4, 6–3
Runner-up 2. 22 February 2004 Hyderabad Hard China Li Ting South Africa Liezel Huber
India Sania Mirza
7–6(7–1), 6–4
Winner 4. 22 August 2004 Olympic Games Hard China Li Ting Spain Conchita Martínez
Spain Virginia Ruano Pascual
6–3, 6–3
Winner 5. 3 October 2004 Guangzhou Hard China Li Ting China Yang Shujing
China Yu Ying
6–4, 6–1
Runner-up 3. 12 February 2005 Hyderabad Hard China Li Ting China Yan Zi
China Zheng Jie
6–4, 6–1
Winner 6. 1 May 2005 Estoril Clay China Li Ting Netherlands Michaëlla Krajicek
Slovakia Henrieta Nagyová
6–3, 6–1
Winner 7. 12 February 2006 Pattaya City Hard China Li Ting China Yan Zi
China Zheng Jie
3–6, 6–1, 7–6(7–5)
Runner-up 4. 4 March 2006 Doha Hard China Li Ting Slovakia Daniela Hantuchová
Japan Ai Sugiyama
6–4, 6–4
Winner 8. 7 May 2006 Estoril Clay China Li Ting Argentina Gisela Dulko
Spain María Sánchez Lorenzo
6–2, 6–2
Winner 9. 1 October 2006 Guangzhou Hard China Li Ting United States Vania King
Croatia Jelena Kostanić Tošić
6–4, 2–6, 7–5
Runner-up 5. 15 April 2007 Charleston Hard China Peng Shuai China Yan Zi
China Zheng Jie
7–5, 6–0
Runner-up 6. 26 May 2007 Strasbourg Clay Australia Alicia Molik China Zheng Jie
China Yan Zi
6–3, 6–4
Runner-up 7. 17 June 2007 Birmingham Grass United States Meilen Tu Taiwan Chuang Chia-jung
Taiwan Chan Yung-jan
6–7(3–7), 3–6
Runner-up 8. 19 October 2007 Guangzhou Hard United States Vania King China Peng Shuai
China Yan Zi
6–3, 6–4
Winner 10. 7 October 2007 Tokyo Hard China Yan Zi Taiwan Chuang Chia-jung
United States Vania King
1–6, 6–2, [10–6]
Winner 11. 14 October 2007 Bangkok Hard China Yan Zi Japan Ayumi Morita
Japan Junri Namigata
w/o
Winner 12. 9 March 2008 Bangalore Hard China Peng Shuai Taiwan Chan Yung-jan
TaiwanChuang Chia-jung
6–4 5–7, [10–8]
Runner-up 9. 21 September 2008 Guangzhou Hard China Yan Zi Ukraine Mariya Koryttseva
Belarus Tatiana Poutchek
6–4, 4–6, [10–8]
Runner-up 10. 20 September 2009 Guangzhou Hard Japan Kimiko Date-Krumm Belarus Olga Govortsova
Belarus Tatiana Poutchek
3–6, 6–2, [10–8]

See also

References

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