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“The only sun we had this week is Lulu,” romanticised Stefanos Tsitsipas on social media, in a nod to the unlikely beaming ray to have descended on a rain-stricken SW19.
Wimbledon remains the amphitheatre like no other in tennis, where untold stories can blossom at accentuated rates and where heroics can be rewarded with career-transcending clamour. Win over the champagne-popping crowd of linen trousers and funky headwear and you might just change your life.
The feel-good tale of 2024 just so happened to derail the other feel-good tale unfolding in London, a revitalised and re-firing Emma Raducanu seeing her commanding run – including two top 10 wins – after a gruelling chapter of injury setbacks and unrivalled scrutiny come to an end at the hands of qualifier Lulu Sun.
Optimism of a Raducanu charge had been brewing, particularly as she ousted ninth seed Maria Sakkari and with a half-favourable draw teasing a path to the final for the former US Open champion. Sun thought otherwise, prolonging what she hopes is anything but a mere day in the sun.
Sun will face Croatia’s Donna Vekic in the quarter-finals
Such can be the nature of tennis and its proclivity for emerging stories, Sun could have strolled through the bustling All England Club grounds undetected as she arrived ranked No 123 in the world at the beginning of the fortnight.
The 23-year-old had only just chalked up her Grand Slam debut as a qualifier at the Australian Open earlier this year, before making her WTA 1000 debut as a wildcard at the Dubai Championships; here she was knocking out eighth seed Qinwen Zheng in the opening round, here she was serving up the newest test of Raducanu resilience with another shock win.
If you are to buy into Coco Gauff’s comments this week, perhaps we aren’t to be shocked at all. The American urged for greater respect and recognition for the less marquee names on tour, pointing towards the depth of talent that continues to fuel the fluidity of a women’s game within which unknown threats lurk in their numbers, at least these days. Gauff’s underlying point? There are winners all over, you might just not have heard of them yet.
Sun, despite the celebratory tears indicative of a career-high moment against Raducanu, wasn’t too surprised. Having begun the year ranked 219th, she will now rise to at least 53rd in the WTA rankings.
“In terms of the tennis, we’re not that much different, far off, from the top hundred,” she said of qualifiers. “It’s just that you have to get far in some tournaments, obviously in the big tournaments, to make that jump.
“I don’t think it’s surprising. At the same time I wasn’t thinking, ‘Oh, I’m going to be in the quarter-finals of Wimbledon.’ I honestly was just like, ‘Okay, first match. I got through it, Okay, next match.’
“After I passed quallies (qualifiers), I was super delighted because the last quallies I played at Wimbledon, I lost in the final round of quallies in three sets. I was super disappointed. When you’re so close to qualifying, it kind of hurts your heart. So just getting to the main draw was a big step already.”
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A look at the best moments from day seven of Wimbledon, which saw Emma Raducanu and Coco Gauff depart
Sun had been beaten by Mai Hontama in the third round of qualifying ahead of Wimbledon in 2022, the year in which she turned professional.
Before then she attended the University of Texas, intrigue to her attendance stemming from an upbringing that saw her born in New Zealand to a Chinese mother and Croatian father before relocating to Shanghai followed by Geneva, Switzerland.
“Honestly, before going to Texas, that year actually in the beginning of the year, I had no plans on going to university,” she said this week. “I thought I was going to go straight to pro. I was still playing juniors. It was my last junior year.
“Then I got injured. My mom, as I said before, she was worried about when am I going to take my exams, all that. Basically she saw a message from Howard, the coach at Texas. She was like, ‘Oh, my God, this is a good school. You have to go. Text him back.’
“I was so in awe with Austin, the city. I loved it so much that I was like, ‘Wow, this is a school that’s so big and they have everything. It was really amazing.”
If she could blend the flags of New Zealand and Switzerland into one, she would, Sun having made the choice to commit to representing the former.
“It was definitely difficult because I grew up a little bit in New Zealand. I was born there. My family is still there. I grew up in Switzerland as well. Both countries are dear to me,” she said.
“It wasn’t an easy decision because it never is when you have to choose between two things. It will always be all the countries that I have been in and have grew up or have a link to, they will always be within me in a way. I don’t think that’s ever going to leave.”
With her win over Raducanu she becomes the first qualifier to reach the women’s quarter-finals at Wimbledon since Kaia Kanepi of Estonia in 2010, and the first New Zealander to reach this stage since Chris Lewis in 1983 before he was beaten by John McEnroe in the final.
Belinda Cordwell remains the most recent New Zealander to advance to a Grand Slam quarters when she made it to the final four at the 1989 Australian Open. History beckons on her dream run.
“I know when I won to get to the round of 16, I was the second player to do it,” she explained. “So to reach the quarter-finals, I think it’s a major step because it brings inspiration and it brings to all the players in New Zealand something to look up – not just for myself, but the country as a whole, as for tennis in New Zealand, to be able to look farther.”
Money isn’t everything in tennis. To some, it is everything, certainly at one point, whether they want it to be or not, whether they care for it or not. In beating Raducanu, Sun ensured she was guaranteed £375,000, amounting to more than her career earnings to date.
But the larger, more pressing, spot-lit picture for Sun is a springboard off which to toss herself into an ever-broadening mix of female forces within tennis, to the tune of Gauff’s sentiment. The caveat is the very argument she stands for, an untapped breadth of challengers, as much only continuing to contribute to an enthralling women’s scene.
‘A little sun never hurt anybody’, she wrote in an Instagram post dating back to September 2019 – her breakout Wimbledon appearance suggests differently.
Awaiting her in the quarter-finals is a matchup with Croatia’s Donna Vekic, who is coming off a win over Paula Badosa.
These Championships revel in a story like that of Sun. Where to now?
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