Tiny New Zealand town rallying behind young tennis star Lulu Sun

and Georgie Hanafin

A Southland town is abuzz that one of its youngsters has pulled off a massive upset on tennis’ world stage.

Lulu Sun, born in Te Anau, has beaten world number eight Qinwen Zheng in the first round of the women’s singles at Wimbledon.

And on Wednesday, Sun was named to represent New Zealand in doubles at the Paris Olympic Games along with Grand Slam winner Erin Routliffe.

Sun switched allegiances from Switzerland to New Zealand in March and was the first Kiwi player to make a grand slam singles main draw in seven years.

Te Anau tennis player Phil Marsh said her talent had been clear from a young age.

Marsh last played her 10 years ago when she was 13.

Sun and her sister had been looking for hitting partners one summer and he was one of those called up to help.

“I remember following the ball into the net at one stage and thinking ‘oh well this might be a volley I can put away here’ but she actually loosened my grip on the racket in my hand. It was a bit of a shock at that stage to feel that sort of power. She was very good,” Marsh said.

He reckoned Sun would not remember him, but he has never forgotten her raw power on the court.

“I’ve always kept an eye on where she’s going and what number in the world she was heading towards. Just sort of followed her career with interest, really.”

Lulu Sun last played in Te Anau in 2018 – an exhibition match at the tennis club’s annual tournament.

Lulu Sun during her match against McCarlney Kessler at the ASB Classic in Auckland in March this year.
Photo: Photosport

Club president Greg Sheppard said Sun had kept in touch since moving overseas at age five, with her grandparents still living close to town.

“Every time she comes back we seem to hear from her. She’s always looking for hitting partners and stuff like that,” he said.

“[Her grandparents] have a lovely setting out there where she lives, they’ve got a nice tennis court, so everyone’s keen to go out there and hit with her, but she’s just getting a bit good for us now.”

He admitted he was too scared to go out and have a hit with Sun as a teenager, let alone now.

It was a bit harder to watch her these days too, Sheppard said, especially because the New Zealand streaming rights for the tournament had been unclear.

“We’ve all been trying to find out where we can watch it and where we can watch the next [game]. I’ve been talking with Tennis New Zealand to see if they can put some pressure on someone, somewhere to get it onto the TV because we’d quite like to get a group of us together to watch the next game because we think she’s got a good chance of winning that one too.”

TVNZ had since announced Wimbledon will be streaming live on TVNZ+ from 10pm each night.

Sheppard said it was cool to see someone from Aotearoa make it one of tennis’ biggest stages, and it had tennis fans across the country very excited.

“We’re sort of quite isolated here in New Zealand. But if you’re willing and have the ability to put in the effort and the travel, then you can actually [make the dream happen],” he said.

“It’s definitely going to be good for Tennis New Zealand having someone that’s looking like they’ll be in the top 100 [in the world] after this tournament, I’m hoping. It’s been a while since we’ve had that, it’s really good.”

Southland Mayor Rob Scott said it had got not just Te Anau, but the whole region fizzing.

“It’s something great for our area and it just goes to show Southland is capable of achieving big accomplishments on the world stage. It’s great and it gives us something positive to celebrate,” he said.

Lulu Sun was set to face Ukraine’s Yuliia Starodubtseva in the second round.

The time of the match was yet to be determined.