Sun Tiantian

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Sun Tiantian
孙甜甜
Country (sports) China
ResidenceBeijing
Born (1981-10-12) 12 October 1981 (age 42)
Zhengzhou, Henan
Height1.75 m (5 ft 9 in)
Turned pro1999
Retired2010
PlaysRight-handed (two-handed backhand)
Prize money$1,019,657
Singles
Career record217–156 (58.2%)
Career titles1 WTA, 6 ITF
Highest rankingNo. 77 (19 March 2007)
Grand Slam singles results
Australian Open1R (2006, 2007)
French Open2R (2006)
Wimbledon2R (2004, 2006)
US Open2R (2005)
Doubles
Career record268–154 (63.5%)
Career titles11 WTA, 13 ITF
Highest rankingNo. 16 (22 October 2007)
Grand Slam doubles results
Australian OpenQF (2007)
French OpenQF (2005)
WimbledonQF (2007)
US Open3R (2005)
Mixed doubles
Career titles1
Grand Slam mixed doubles results
Australian OpenW (2008)
French OpenSF (2007)
Wimbledon3R (2007, 2004)
US Open2R (2006)
Team competitions
Fed Cup16–10
Medal record
Olympic Games
Gold medal – first place 2004 Athens Doubles

Sun Tiantian (Chinese: 孙甜甜; pinyin: Sūn Tiántián; Mandarin pronunciation: [swə́n tʰjɛ̌n tʰjɛ̌n]; born 12 October 1981) is a Chinese tennis player. She won the gold medal at the 2004 Summer Olympics in women's doubles along with her partner Li Ting.

Sun reached a career-high singles ranking of world No. 77 in March 2007, winning her only WTA Tour singles title at the 2006 Tashkent Open, and a career-high doubles ranking of No. 16 in October 2007, winning eleven WTA titles and reaching the quarterfinals of three Grand Slam women's doubles tournaments, and winning the mixed doubles event at the 2008 Australian Open alongside Nenad Zimonjić.

Career[edit]

In September 2000, Sun won two successive $10k 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 $25k tournaments: firstly in April, at Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam (beating countrywoman Zheng Jie in the semifinal and Korean Jeon Mi-ra in the final); and then in August at Beijing (beating Zheng Jie in the semifinal again, and Rika Fujiwara in the final).

In 2003, she reached the final of a $50k 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 $50k Shenzhen tournament to countrywoman Li Na. Her year-end ranking had improved to world No. 118.

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

In 2005, she reached her first WTA singles quarterfinal 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 6–7, 3–6. After 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 straight sets in the second round after an easy first-round victory over Tatiana Panova of Russia, only to be outperformed in her second WTA quarterfinal 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, Sun fought her way past Iroda Tulyaganova in the final to win the first WTA Tour 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.

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 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. The pair defeated Sania Mirza and Mahesh Bhupathi in two sets. They won the title with their fifth championship point.

Major finals[edit]

Grand Slam finals[edit]

Mixed doubles: 1 title[edit]

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[edit]

Doubles: 1 gold medal[edit]

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

WTA career finals[edit]

Singles: 1 title[edit]

Legend
Tier I (0–0)
Tier II (0–0)
Tier III (0–0)
Tier IV & V (1–0)
Result Date Tournament Surface Opponent Score
Win 8 October 2006 Tashkent Open Hard Uzbekistan Iroda Tulyaganova 6–2, 6–4

Doubles: 21 (11 titles, 10 runner-ups)[edit]

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

ITF Circuit finals[edit]

Singles: 11 (6–5)[edit]

$50,000 tournaments
$25,000 tournaments
$10,000 tournaments
Result No. Date Tournament Surface Opponent Score
Loss 1. 16 April 2000 ITF Shenyang, China Hard China Li Na 0–6, 4–6
Loss 2. 4 June 2000 ITF Shenzhen, China Hard South Korea Kim Eun-ha 4–6, 3–6
Win 3. 4 September 2000 ITF Hangzhou, China Hard China Zheng Jie 6–2, 6–2
Win 4. 17 September 2000 ITF Hohhot, China Hard China Ding Ding 6–4, 6–3
Win 5. 17 June 2001 ITF Seoul, South Korea Hard South Korea Choi Jin-young 3–6, 6–3, 6–1
Win 6. 24 June 2001 ITF Inchon, South Korea Hard South Korea Chung Yang-jin 6–4, 6–3
Win 7. 14 April 2002 ITF Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam Hard South Korea Jeon Mi-ra 6–3, 6–4
Loss 8. 13 May 2002 ITF Shanghai, China Hard China Zheng Jie 2–6, 2–6
Win 9. 6 August 2002 ITF Beijing, China Hard Japan Rika Fujiwara 6–3, 6–0
Loss 10. 20 July 2003 ITF Modena, Italy Clay Hungary Melinda Czink 3–6, 3–6
Loss 11. 31 October 2004 ITF Shenzhen, China Hard China Li Na 3–6, 6–4, 2–6

Doubles: 21 (13–8)[edit]

Result No. Date Tournament Surface Partnering Opponent Score
Win 1. 13 June 1999 ITF Shenyang, China Hard China Chen Yan China Chen Yin
China Tuo Qi
6–2, 6–4
Win 2. 10 September 2000 ITF Zhejiang, China Hard China Chen Yan China Zheng Jie
China Yan Zi
6–3, 7–5
Win 3. 10 September 2000 ITF Hohhot, China Clay China Chen Yan China Ding Ding
China Tang Yan
6–0, 6–3
Loss 4. 4 June 2001 ITF Hohhot, China Hard China Chen Yan China Zheng Jie
China Yan Zi
4–6, 6–2, 3–6
Loss 5. 29 July 2001 ITF Guangzhou, China Hard China Chen Yan China Li Ting
Hong Kong Tong Ka-po
5–7, 3–6
Win 6. 27 January 2002 ITF Hull, United Kingdom Hard (i) China Zheng Jie Republic of Ireland Claire Curran
Republic of Ireland Elsa O'Riain
7–6(4), 7–5
Loss 7. 10 February 2002 ITF Redbridge, United Kingdom Hard (i) United Kingdom Helen Crook Romania Magda Mihalache
Russia Ekaterina Sysoeva
6–4, 4–6, 4–6
Win 8. 11 August 2002 ITF Beijing, China Hard China Li Ting China Yan Zi
China Zheng Jie
7–5, 6–3
Win 9. 23 February 2003 ITF Columbus, United States Hard (i) China Li Ting Brazil Bruna Colósio
Brazil Joana Cortez
6–3, 6–1
Win 10. 2 March 2003 ITF Saint Paul, United States Hard China Li Ting United States Teryn Ashley
United States Abigail Spears
6–3, 6–1
Win 11. 30 March 2003 ITF Atlanta, United States Hard China Li Ting New Zealand Leanne Baker
Italy Francesca Lubiani
4–6, 6–4, 6–4
Loss 12. 16 June 2003 ITF Gorizia, Italy Clay China Li Ting China Yan Zi
China Zheng Jie
6–7(5), 6–1, 4–6
Win 13. 23 June 2003 ITF Fontanafredda, Italy Clay China Li Ting Bulgaria Maria Geznenge
Serbia and Montenegro Dragana Zarić
6–4, 6–3
Loss 14. 30 June 2003 ITF Orbetello, Italy Clay China Li Ting China Yan Zi
China Zheng Jie
2–6, 5–7
Winner 15. 13 July 2003 ITF Modena, Italy Clay China Li Ting Japan Rika Fujiwara
Australia Trudi Musgrave
3–6, 7–5, 7–5
Winner 16. 30 November 2003 ITF Changsha, China Hard China Li Ting China Yan Zi
China Zheng Jie
6–4, 6–2
Winner 17. 7 December 2003 ITF Shenzhen, China Hard China Li Ting China Yan Zi
China Zheng Jie
6–3, 3–6, 6–4
Runner-up 18. 6 June 2005 ITF Beijing, China Hard China Li Ting China Yan Zi
China Zheng Jie
1–6, 5–7
Winner 19. 16 August 2005 Bronx Classic, United States Hard China Li Ting Belarus Tatiana Poutchek
Belarus Anastasiya Yakimova
2–6, 6–2, 6–4
Runner-up 20. 17 May 2009 Open de Saint-Gaudens, France Clay Japan Kimiko Date Japan Rika Fujiwara
South Africa Chanelle Scheepers
5–7, 4–6
Runner-up 21. 10 August 2009 ITF Quanzhou, China Hard China Hao Jie China Han Xinyun
Chinese Taipei Kao Shao-yuan
6–1, 2–6, [6–10]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

External links[edit]