Meet Emma Raducanu’s next opponent ahead of Wimbledon fourth round

• Emma Raducanu plays New Zealand qualifier Lulu Sun in the fourth round 
• Sun is making her first appearance in the Wimbledon main draw and is thriving
• She is looking to emulate Raducanu by winning a slam after being a qualifier 

If you don’t know Emma Raducanu’s opponent on Centre Court today you can be forgiven for she didn’t expect to be here at this stage either.

Lulu Sun is on the ride of her life, shining on what is her main draw debut at Wimbledon.

The 23-year-old, who is flying under the radar with less than 5,000 followers on Instagram, is into round four after wins over Miriam Bulgaru, Gabriela Knutson, Alexandra Eala, Qinwen Zheng, Yuliia Starodubtseva and Lin Zhu.

In fact, that main draw first round win over No 8 seed Zheng was not only her first ever career win over a top 10 player, but her first career win over a top 50 player. Sun immediately laid down a marker for the rest of the women’s singles draw.

Even then, after stunning Zheng, media interest was minimal in Sun, who was continuing to fly under the radar despite delivering one of the scalps of the championships so far.

But there was no hiding place when, after beating Zhu, the media requests flew in left, right and centre.

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Reaching the fourth round – becoming the first woman representing New Zealand to reach to the last-16 at Wimbledon in the Open Era, and the first since Ruia Morrison in 1959 – and landing a Centre Court date with Emma Raducanu made her headline news.

‘I wasn’t expecting to be here at this stage, but I’ve just been playing match-by-match. Yeah, here I am,’ Sun laughed.

Sun was born in Te Anau, an incredibly small town on New Zealand’s South Island, with a dream of making it as a star in tennis.

‘It’s a very small town (with) practically more sheep and deer than people!’ Sun explained this week.

The trilingual No 123-seed, who has guaranteed herself £226,000 in prize money whatever happens now (her career prize money to date was £245,000), spent a short period living in Shanghai before the family made the move to Switzerland at the age of five.

‘Growing up in Switzerland, I didn’t spend too much time there when I started playing more and more juniors… I’m basically traveling all the time,’ Sun explained.

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As the daughter of a Chinese-born mother and a Croatian father – as well as having a German-English stepfather who hails from Devon, Sun has a unique blend of cultures which has seen her draw comparisons to Raducanu.

She spent time in the United States, specifically at the University of Texas, for college, with her mother eager to see her daughter prioritise studies given how difficult it is as a lower-ranked player to make a living from tennis.

The English, Chinese and French-speaking player headed to Texas to study International Relations and Global Studies, before finishing up in 2022.

‘I think I was lucky because Covid happened, and I didn’t know going into college that that would happen,’ she said.

‘I had an injury that year, and my mom, she was really worried. She was, like, ‘I don’t know when you’re going to do your exams, you have to focus on your studies a bit before you go 100% in tennis.’ I guess it was kind of luck, if you will, and timing.

‘So with Covid I was able to do something and to study and finish, which is really good because now I can go 100% in my tennis.’

And 100 per cent into tennis she has gone, with her game having gone to the next level under well-respected coach Vladimir Platenik.

It is between Slovakia, where Platenik is based, and Miami, where Sun divides her time now.

‘I don’t want to jinx it, but Lulu is fantastic,’ Platenik told reporters this week of his latest gem’s rise to stardom.

‘She’s too nice, it’s almost impossible to imagine.

‘It is easy to work with her, but also she needed more self-confidence, which she was missing a bit. But it’s coming from her character and for me it’s important to try to build her confidence, but not lose the kindness that she has.

‘I want her to be a complete person, tennis-wise and character-wise.’

Platenik’s record speaks for itself having worked with Daria Kasatkina, as well as 2014 Australian Open finalist Dominika Cibulková.

Sun may not have the profile of some of his other clients but she will walk out onto Centre Court today with the chance to announce herself to the world.

There is an irony, too, in the fact that she is aiming to emulate Raducanu and become only the second qualifier ever to win a Grand Slam. Only, to do that she must beat the British trailblazer who pulled off that remarkable feat at the 2021 US Open.

Sun has come a long way from her WTA Tour debut at the Morocco Open in 2022 and this fairytale run at Wimbledon has catapulted her up 49 places to world No 74 in the WTA live rankings. Should she know Raducanu off even greater heights lay in weight.

Back home there has been a scramble to get Wimbledon matches on TV so they can keep track of Sun’s progress after she became the first Kiwi player to reach a fourth round of a Slam since Brett Steven in 1997. For a Kiwi woman to reach round four of a Slam you’ve got to go back to Belinda Cordwell in 1989.

It may well be 3am back home in New Zealand by the time Sun steps out for her shining moment on Centre Court but that won’t put people off, not with the chance for more history to be written.