Sun: first Chinese player to reach Roland Garros junior singles final
As exciting Chinese teenager Sun Xinran was on the path to a historic win in her Roland Garros girls’ singles semi-final, she channeled the character of her idol.
The 15-year-old became the first Chinese player to reach a Roland Garros junior singles final by defeating Victoria Luiza Barros 6-2 6-3.
But she was seriously challenged by the Brazilian in an engaging clash between the second and third seeded players, with her creativity and clarity of thought coming to the fore.
The junior world No. 2 has been in superb form in recent months on the ITF World Tennis Tour Juniors and earlier this month won the Trofeo Bonfiglio at J500 Milan – the second J500 title of her career.
Here, she demonstrated the fight of Rafael Nadal, the greatest clay-court champion.
“Rafael Nadal, like every time when he played a match, I think he always gave 100 per cent. He never ever gave up. That's my goal also,” she said.
“Every year I would watch him and when he was still playing, he was my favourite player.”
Hailing from Shenzhen, Sun said she enjoys reading and drawing in her spare time away from the court and also admires Li Na, who created history when becoming the first Chinese player to win a Grand Slam at Roland Garros 15 years ago.
“Actually, I have spoken to her one time, but I'm a little shy because she's an amazing player,” she said.
“She's also my favourite Chinese player. She is amazing, because it is so hard for a Chinese player to win the Roland Garros final because it is on a clay court.”
Sun, meanwhile, is one of a number of players around the world to have received financial assistance through the ITF-operated Grand Slam Player Development Programme in the form of Grand Slam Player Grants.
This development programme is financed by the Grand Slams, but it is the ITF’s modelling which determines the players selected for grants. It aims to provide players from underrepresented nations with greater access to competitive pathways.
Sun already has two pro titles to her name – won on the ITF World Tennis Tour in Sharm El Sheikh last year – while her only junior loss this year came in the Australian Open quarter-finals. She will play Alisa Oktiabreva in the final at Roland Garros on Sunday.
Oktiabreva showed tremendous fight to reach the final. After dropping the first set against Jana Kovackova, she seized the initiative late in the second set to triumph 5-7 6-4 6-3.
A semi-finalist in the girls’ singles three years ago, Oktiabreva has been concentrating on pro events and had hoped to feature in qualifying for the Roland Garros women’s event. She has won five ITF World Tennis Tour events in total and currently sits at No. 309 in the WTA Rankings.
But a wrist injury late last year stalled her progress and she and her coach decided to target the junior event instead.
“I was struggling with a wrist injury and it was kind of a roller coaster, because the doctors couldn't agree on what was the problem, what exactly to do, whether the surgery was needed or not. So it was a long process,” she said.
“I didn't plan to play juniors, but I was really sad that I couldn't play the women's main draw, so once I came back to training, I said to my coach, ‘I want to play juniors, because it's Roland Garros.’
“It has like a special space in my heart and I just said, ‘let's go for the title,’ and he was like, ‘yeah, let's do it.’”
The finalists played earlier this year at W35 Monastir. While Oktabrieva was successful 6-2 6-1, she said little could be read into the outcome of that match.
“I can't really look at that match because, first of all, it was on hard court, and I think at that moment she was struggling with some injury, or she didn't feel really good,” she said.
“You could see that in her game that day, so I expect much more from her tomorrow. It is a new match, a new day, so I can’t really look back on that match.
“It means a lot just to be here, but there's still one more step. So I'm still focusing on that, that one step more. And we'll see tomorrow.”
A full list of results from the 2026 Roland Garros Junior Championships is available here