Jordan Lee and Sun Xinran both underlined their credentials as rising stars of tennis after triumphing at the World Tennis Tour Junior Finals.
The event in Chengdu, China, showcases the best eight boys and girls from the past 12 months on the junior circuit, with past winners including former top-10 players Holger Rune, Andrey Rublev, and Marta Kostyuk.
On Sunday, Wimbledon boys’ singles champion Lee locked horns with Ziga Sesko in a repeat of their round-robin match where the latter came out on top.
The fourth seed lost 7-6 (5), 6-7 (3), 6-2 to the Slovenian on Thursday but the fifth seed had no answer to the 16-year-old’s quality as he won 6-4, 7-5.
Following his victory, Lee said, via Tennis Now, “I just want to say congrats to Ziga and his coach. Amazing week. You know, he beat me in the group stages, so today I tried my best to get the revenge, and I did.
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“I think I compete pretty much, I’d like to say, in my mind, I compete better than everyone, or I try to compete better than everyone. I think no matter the score, I feel like I’m always in the match, no matter how I’m playing or no matter how I’m feeling.”
Meanwhile, fellow 16-year-old Sun, who gave Coco Gauff a first-set scare at the China Open earlier this month, lifted the girls’ title after beating Anna Pushkareva 6-3, 6-7 (4), 6-1 in a repeat of their Wimbledon and US Open finals this year.
The Chinese star lost out at SW19 in July but triumphed in New York, in a year when she also lost the girls’ title at the French Open.
Sun, who was described as “really promising” by two-time major winner Gauff, was overcome with joy following her victory, while paying her respects to the young Russian.
She added, “I haven’t really processed it yet. I’m just so happy, especially because it’s in China. Winning this title really makes me incredibly happy and excited. I’m also so grateful to all my fans who were cheering me on today.
“I also want to say something to Anna. We played each other four times this year. I cannot believe it! I hope I don’t see you next year. But you are an amazing player. I like to play with you, and we are really good friends.
“She played extremely well, especially in the second set. The way she played in that set was really unbelievable. But I kept telling myself that I couldn’t give up. I had to keep fighting. I thought that no matter what happened, I wanted to play my best tennis. I believed in myself, and I believed that I could do it.”
At this rate, tennis fans may be seeing a lot more of Lee – who has been described as a prospect America hasn’t had in a “long time” by former world No 1 Andy Roddick – and Sun in years to come.
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