Sun Tiantian

Sun Tiantian
孙甜甜
Country (sports)	China
Residence	Beijing
Born	12 October 1981 (age 43); Zhengzhou, Henan
Height	1.75 m (5 ft 9 in)
Turned pro	1999
Retired	2010
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	11 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)
Team competitions
Fed Cup	16–10
Medal record
Olympic Games

Sun Tiantian (Chinese: 孙甜甜; pinyin: Sūn Tiántián; Mandarin pronunciation: [swə́n tʰjɛ̌n tʰjɛ̌n]; born 12 October 1981) is a Chinese former professional 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

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 tennis 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 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

Grand Slam finals

Mixed doubles: 1 title

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

Olympic finals

Doubles: 1 gold medal

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

WTA Tour career finals

Singles: 1 title

Winner - Legend
Grand Slam tournaments (0–0)
Tier I (0–0)
Tier II (0–0)
Tier III (0–0)
Tier IV & V (1–0)

Outcome	No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent	Score
Winner	1.	8 October 2006	Tashkent	Hard	Iroda Tulyaganova	6–2, 6–4

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

Legend: Before 2009	Legend: Starting in 2009
Grand Slam tournaments (0–0)
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)

Outcome	No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
Winner	1.	14 June 2003	Vienna	Clay	Li Ting	Yan Zi Zheng Jie	6–3, 6–4
Runner-up	1.	12 October 2003	Tashkent	Hard	Li Ting	Yuliya Beygelzimer Tatiana Poutchek	3–6, 6–7⁽⁰⁾
Winner	2.	2 November 2003	Quebec	Hard(i)	Li Ting	Els Callens Meilen Tu	6–3, 6–3
Winner	3.	9 November 2003	Pattaya	Hard	Li Ting	Wynne Prakusya Angelique Widjaja	6–4, 6–3
Runner-up	2.	22 February 2004	Hyderabad	Hard	Li Ting	Liezel Huber Sania Mirza	6–7⁽¹⁾, 4–6
Winner	4.	3 October 2004	Guangzhou	Hard	Li Ting	Yang Shujing Yu Ying	6–4, 6–1
Runner-up	3.	12 February 2005	Hyderabad	Hard	Li Ting	Yan Zi Zheng Jie	4–6, 1–6
Winner	5.	1 May 2005	Estoril	Clay	Li Ting	Michaëlla Krajicek Henrieta Nagyová	6–3, 6–1
Winner	6.	12 February 2006	Pattaya	Hard	Li Ting	Yan Zi Zheng Jie	3–6, 6–1, 7–6⁽⁵⁾
Runner-up	4.	4 March 2006	Doha	Hard	Li Ting	Daniela Hantuchová Ai Sugiyama	4–6, 4–6
Winner	7.	7 May 2006	Estoril	Clay	Li Ting	Gisela Dulko María Sánchez Lorenzo	6–2, 6–2
Winner	8.	1 October 2006	Guangzhou	Hard	Li Ting	Vania King Jelena Kostanić Tošić	6–4, 2–6, 7–5
Runner-up	5.	15 April 2007	Charleston	Hard	Peng Shuai	Yan Zi Zheng Jie	5–7, 0–6
Runner-up	6.	26 May 2007	Strasbourg	Clay	Alicia Molik	Zheng Jie Yan Zi	3–6, 4–6
Runner-up	7.	17 June 2007	Birmingham	Grass	Meilen Tu	Chuang Chia-jung Chan Yung-jan	6–7⁽³⁾, 3–6
Runner-up	8.	19 October 2007	Guangzhou	Hard	Vania King	Peng Shuai Yan Zi	6–3, 6–4
Winner	9.	7 October 2007	Tokyo	Hard	Yan Zi	Chuang Chia-jung Vania King	1–6, 6–2, [10–6]
Winner	10.	14 October 2007	Bangkok	Hard	Yan Zi	Ayumi Morita Junri Namigata	w/o
Winner	11.	9 March 2008	Bangalore	Hard	Peng Shuai	Chan Yung-jan Chuang Chia-jung	6–4, 5–7, [10–8]
Runner-up	9.	21 September 2008	Guangzhou	Hard	Yan Zi	Mariya Koryttseva Tatiana Poutchek	4–6, 6–4, [8–10]
Runner-up	10.	20 September 2009	Guangzhou	Hard	Kimiko Date-Krumm	Olga Govortsova Tatiana Poutchek	6–3, 2–6, [8–10]

ITF finals

Singles (6-5)

$50,000 tournaments
$25,000 tournaments
$10,000 tournaments

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

Doubles (13-8)

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