By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Sunday July 7, 2024
Qualifier Lulu Sun cracked over 50 winners to defeat Emma Raducanu on her Centre Court debut.
Photo Source: Rob Newell /Camera Sport
Welcome to Wimbledon, the land of the rising (Lulu) sun.
It has been a stunning debut for the 23-year-old southpaw at SW19, and on Sunday Lulu Sun made the most of her Centre Court debut with a breathtaking display of attacking grass-court tennis, striking 52 winners past 2021 US Open champion and hometown favorite Emma Raducanu in a 6-2, 5-7, 6-2 triumph which places her in the quarterfinals on her Wimbledon debut.
Sun, who had never won a Grand Slam main draw match prior to this week, had never even faced a Top-10 player prior to her first-round upset of China’s Zheng Qinwen, the No.8 seed.
Also read: Former Texas Longhorn Lulu Sun Is Making History for New Zealand at Wimbledon
Six days later, she is the first player from New Zealand to reach a major quarterfinal since 1989, and the first to ever do it at Wimbledon.
With her mother and sister in tears in the front row of her box, emotional Sun was at a loss for words after her triumph.
“Oh, man,” Sun said in her on-court interview, “it was a great match against her. I really had to fight tooth and nail against her. I’m just incredibly … I don’t even have the words right now.”
Sun, who will face Croatia's Donna Vekic in the quarterfinals, took the play to Raducanu from start to finish, striking 32 more winners than her British opponent and coming to net four times more than Raducanu.
But Raducanu pushed her, forcing a deciding set with determined tennis, and clinging close, even after falling behind by a break early in the third. Credit sun, who never wavered in her gameplan, and produced impressive strikes without hesitation in all situations.
Notes and Numbers: For her troubles she has already earned 375K British pounds in prize money (approximately $480,000) which is far more than her career prize money ($318,832) to date.
Sun is projected to rise 70 spots to No.53 in the WTA live rankings, and could go higher if she continues to rack up wins at Wimbledon
Sun saved a match point in her second-round qualifying match, defeating World No.223 Gabriela Andre Knutson, 4-6 6-4 7-6(6).