Career
Her highest Women's Tennis Association singles ranking is 233rd, which she reached on May 28, 2007. Her career high in doubles is 50th, which she reached on September 17, 2007. 320 in the Women's Tennis Association Tour rankings, and had earned herself a reputation as "one to watch", having shown plenty of recent promise of further improvement in the preceding year.
Sun Shengnan began competing on the International Tennis Federation circuit at the age of fifteen in May 2002.
However, she did not compete again for a whole year after the beginning of August, and thus gained for herself only a lowly end-of-year foothold on the world ranking list at #1031. When August finally came around again in 2003, she returned to competition as a sixteen-year-old at International Tennis Federation events.
And that October she reached the quarter-final of a $25,000 tournament at Beijing after being awarded a wildcard entry into the main draw, before losing to Yuka Yoshida. The record of her year-end ranking seems to have been lost by the Women's Tennis Association, but it was undoubtedly an improvement on her 2002 outcome thanks to the quarter-final finish at Beijing.
She finished the year world-ranked 588, which logically should have been similar to her previous year"s finish.
But it was to be in 2005 that the Chinese teenager would first break through to greater results, including two tournament wins. In February, she reached her career-first semi-final in the $10,000 tournament at Melilla. In August, she reached the final of a $25,000 fixture at Wuxi, losing to Miho Saeki of Japan.
Then in September, she qualified for her first Women's Tennis Association Tour event at Guangzhou with an impressive three-set victory over the young Croat prospect Ivana Lisjak, but lost in the first round of the main draw to Alina Jidkova of Russia.
At the end of the year, her world ranking had leapt up to 336. In January 2006, she suffered a few early losses, but picked up enough points in qualifying rounds to improve to a career-best ranking of 311 early in February.
With youth still very much on her side, the 19-year-old appeared to be one of China"s hottest next-generation prospects for advancement into the world"s Top 150. But after rising to a career high of Number.
233 in May 2007, a dismal run of early losses over the summer and Autumn that year caused her ranking to slip back to Number.
400 by the beginning of December the same year before a quarterfinal result at a $75,000 tournament that month revived it to around 350 at the close of the year. She then started the year off in 2011, making the semifinals in the $50,000 event at Quanzhou moving her rankings up to World Number. 248 where she currently stands.
Singles: 8 (6-2).