On January 14th, Beijing time, a major upset occurred in the first round of the Australian Open women's singles. Sun Lulu, a Chinese-American star ranked 44th in the world, lost two consecutive sets to Kovinic, ranked 1289th in the world, and was eliminated in the first round. After the upset elimination of Sun Lulu, Kovinic ended her five consecutive Grand Slam defeats and won another women's singles victory on the tour since July 2023.
Since last year's Wimbledon, where she surprisingly reached the quarter-finals, Sun Lulu seems to have lost her magic. Last year at Wimbledon, Sun Lulu first caused a big upset by eliminating Zheng Qinwen in the first round, then eliminated another Chinese star Zhu Lin in the third round, and also defeated Chinese-American star Raducanu, reaching the Wimbledon quarter-finals. Sun Lulu became the first New Zealand female player in the open era to reach the second week of Wimbledon.
It is worth noting that Sun Lulu is a Chinese-American player. Born in New Zealand in 2001, her mother is from Nanchang, Jiangxi, China, and her father is Croatian. Sun Lulu can speak fluent Chinese and has visited her mother's hometown in China many times. She is jokingly called the "Jiangxi Sister" by Chinese fans.
However, after the highlight of reaching the Wimbledon quarter-finals last year, it seems that Sun Lulu's luck has been used up. She withdrew in the first round of last year's US Open, and this year at the Australian Open, she was eliminated in the first round by a "thousand-ranked player". After being eliminated from the Australian Open, Sun Lulu has suffered six consecutive defeats across the year, seemingly showing a trend of "fleeting brilliance."