Lulu Sun has had an early exit from Wimbledon. Photo: PHOTOSPORT
New Zealander Lulu Sun's Wimbledon has ended early, with her elimination from the doubles in the first round.
Sun, who was beaten in the first round of the singles earlier this week, teamed with Leylah Fernandez in the doubles, but they were beaten 6-2 6-1 by sixth Asia Muhammad (US) and Demi Schuurs (Netherlands).
Despite the decisive scoreline, the match took one hour and 13 minutes, with Sun and Canadian Fernandez attacking hard but failing to convert five break points.
Sun was one of the big stories at last year's tournament, making the quarterfinals after starting as a qualifier, but this year's event has been a short-lived affair.
She was beaten 6-4 6-4 by Marie Bouzkova in the first round of the singles on Tuesday.
Sun was ranked 68th as a singles player at the start of the tournament but faces a rankings drop following her early exit.
Sun said she and Fernandez had a difficult draw in the doubles.
"Not really a first-round match-up you want to face,'' she told Tennis NZ.
"But it was also not the best match from me and Leylah. We had a lot of opportunities in the first part of the first set, and then they started to be the aggressor, so they didn't give us a lot of chances when they came forward, and they were varying the different types of balls to make it hard to rally with them."
Sun said despite her results this week she loved playing on grass again.
"But unfortunately, I didn't get a lot of wins. I did get some good matches here and there, not as in wins, but against good opponents and I can potentially turn that and work on it for the end of the season to create something."
Fellow New Zealander Erin Routliffe and regular partner Gaby Dabrowski, who won their first round doubles match against China's Wang Xinyu and Zheng Saisai 6-1 6-4 on Thursday, will play Polina Kudermetova (Russia) and Zeynep Sonmez (Turkey) in the second round.
In the men's doubles, Michael Venus and Croatian Nikola Mektic advanced from the first round with a 6-4 7-6 victory over Briton Lui Maxted and Connor Thomson in a tight match that lasted one hour 25 minutes.
The eighth seeds, Venus and Mektic will play Brazilians Rafael Matos and Marcelo Melo in the second round.
