Before Emma Raducanu won the US Open in 2021, the idea someone could win three matches to qualify for the main draw of a grand slam and then go all the way to the title seemed outlandish, if not plain ridiculous. That lightning could strike twice, in the name of Lulu Sun, who few even inside the tennis world had heard of before this week, seems almost insane.
But it’s possible. Ranked 123, the 23-year-old shocked the No 8 seed, Qinwen Zheng, in the first round and then, on Sunday, ended Raducanu’s hopes of reaching a first Wimbledon quarter-final with a brilliant performance on Centre Court, whipping her lefty forehand into the corners to take her place in the last eight.
Born in New Zealand to a Chinese mother and Croatian father, Sun’s family moved first to Shanghai and then Switzerland because they wanted their daughter to have an outstanding education. Raised in Geneva, she played junior tennis for Switzerland before switching her allegiance to New Zealand in 2018. She then went to the University of Texas, in Austin, where she studied political science. She speaks three languages – English, Mandarin and French – and is learning Korean because she thinks it may help her to learn Japanese at some stage. Not your usual tennis player. Oh, and her stepfather is from Devon.
“Chinese, from my mum’s side, is very disciplined, hard-working,” she said. “From my dad’s side, he’s from the seaside, so very laid-back and calm. I guess that’s a good combo. From my mum’s side I get that feistiness and competitiveness. Swiss side is neutral [making a calming gesture] and from New Zealand I get that adventure side come out of me.
“I’m really happy to be able to have so many cultures and backgrounds with me, even though sometimes I’m not, as I said before, 100% [fluent] in each one. It’s impossible to be. I’m really grateful to be able to at least have some of it.”
It’s fair to say that few saw this coming. Certainly not Sun who had never played in the main draw here before and made her grand slam debut at the Australian Open this year. And certainly not New Zealand television, who had to move swiftly to arrange for her matches to be shown live after she reached the third round.