Lulu Sun (born 14 April 2001) is a New Zealand professional tennis player. She has a career-high singles ranking of world No. 41 by the WTA, achieved on 26 August 2024, and a best doubles ranking of No. 212, reached on 9 September 2024.
Early and personal life
Sun was born in Te Anau, New Zealand to a Chinese mother and a Croatian father. Sun briefly lived in Shanghai thereafter.[4] From the age of five she was raised in Geneva, Switzerland, where she completed her school education while still visiting New Zealand to visit family, maintaining her deep bond with New Zealand.[5]
She attended college in the United States at the University of Texas at Austin, graduating with a bachelor's degree in international relations and global studies in 2022[6] and completing her degree in just 3 years.[7]
She has an older sister, Phenomena Sun (born 1998), who played in professional tournaments until 2016.[9]
She represented Croatia and then Switzerland until 2024.
Career
Girls and Juniors
As a teenager, Sun entered a number of ITF Women's Circuit events, playing as Lulu Radovcic[10] and later changed her last name to Sun, her mother's maiden name.[citation needed]
Sun represented Switzerland as a junior, finishing runner-up with Violet Apisah in the 2018 Australian Open girls' doubles.[11][12] She also played under the New Zealand flag at junior Wimbledon that year, losing in the second round in singles and the first round in doubles.[13]
2021–2022: NCAA champion, professional debut
Before turning professional, Sun played one season of college tennis for the Texas Longhorns in 2020–21.[14] She went 15–1 on singles court three and 6–1 on court two. In the final of the 2021 NCAA tournament, Sun won the championship-clinching match for the Longhorns to beat Pepperdine 4–3. Sun partnered Kylie Collins in the team's top doubles spot, going 22–4 in dual matches, and they reached the final of the NCAA doubles tournament but fell to North Carolina's Makenna Jones and Elizabeth Scotty.[15]
In April, Sun played under the New Zealand flag for the first time as part of the team for the 2024 Billie Jean King Cup.[23][1]
In May, Sun won the singles and doubles titles at the W100 Bonita Springs Championship in Florida.[24] She reached the top 125 on 17 June 2024.[citation needed]
She qualified for the 2024 Wimbledon Championships making her debut at this major and upset eighth seed Zheng Qinwen in the first round.[25] It was her first top 10 win, and also her first completed victory over any player in the top 100.[5] Next, she reached the third round with a win over fellow qualifier Yulia Starodubtseva[26] and the fourth with a win over Zhu Lin.[27] She equalled the feat of reaching the fourth round at the All England Club as the first New Zealand female player in the Open Era, and second after Dame Ruia Morrison in 1957 and 1959.[28][29] She reached her first quarterfinal with a win over Emma Raducanu becoming the first New Zealand woman to ever reach that stage at Wimbledon in the Open Era. She was only the second woman from New Zealand to reach a major quarterfinal, following Belinda Cordwell at the 1989 Australian Open.[30] Her run finally ended in the quarterfinals where she was beaten in three sets by Donna Vekić.[31][32] She would go on to represent New Zealand at the 2024 Olympics in singles, where she entered as an alternate, as well as in doubles.[33]
At the US Open, Sun retired due to a hip injury after losing the opening set of her first round match against Lucia Bronzetti.[43] Having taken a month off tour, she returned to the court at the China Open, but lost in the first round to Ashlyn Krueger.[44] Sun withdrew from her next scheduled tournament, the Hong Kong Tennis Open, and announced she was bringing an end to her 2024 season.[45]
(W) winner; (F) finalist; (SF) semifinalist; (QF) quarterfinalist; (#R) rounds 4, 3, 2, 1; (RR) round-robin stage; (Q#) qualification round; (P#) preliminary round; (DNQ) did not qualify; (A) absent; (Z#) Davis/Fed Cup Zonal Group (with number indication) or (PO) play-off; (G) gold, (S) silver or (B) bronze Olympic/Paralympic medal; (NMS) not a Masters tournament; (NTI) not a Tier I tournament; (P) postponed; (NH) not held; (SR) strike rate (events won / competed); (W–L) win–loss record.
To avoid confusion and double counting, these charts are updated at the conclusion of a tournament or when the player's participation has ended.
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