CAUGHT BY ARABNEWS.COM
WELLINGTON: Tears were being shed at Lulu Sun’s tennis club in a little rural town in New Zealand, across the world, when the qualifier broke down in the Wimbledon quarterfinals.
Sun, who is ranked 123rd in the world, sobbed uncontrollably on center court after defeating Emma Raducanu, the 2021 US Open champion, 6-2, 5-7, 6-2 in the fourth round to become the first woman from New Zealand to get to the Wimbledon last eight.
Sun, a 23-year-old, was born in the isolated community of Te Anau, close to the South Island’s base in New Zealand.
A modest celebration erupted at the neighborhood tennis club early on Monday morning as her most recent Wimbledon victory took place.
Te Anau Tennis Club president Greg Sheppard claimed that he and about 20 other members had been glued to the clubhouse television to watch Sun’s victory.
Sheppard told AFP, “It was very exciting and nerve-racking.”
We shed a few tears in the clubhouse as she began to cry. It was quite sentimental. We can’t wait to see her. that’s incredible; we’ve never experienced anything like that. When Lulu returns home, that will be wonderful to behold.
Sun is the child of a Croatian father and a Chinese mother.
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Sun relocated to Shanghai with her mother after leaving Te Anau, a village she says has “more sheep and deer than people,” before relocating to Switzerland.
She played college tennis in the United States and was currently competing under the Swiss flag. Sheppard expressed great delight in witnessing Sun perform at such a high level from a distance.
“I believe that if you dug a hole, you would most likely win at Wimbledon. We’re over there,” he said in jest.
The draftsman reported that he found it difficult to complete any work on Monday.
“My phone ran out of battery twice, so I charged it when I returned home at seven in the morning. My phone has been ringing nonstop,” Sheppard remarked. She expects Sun to play Croatia’s Donna Vekic in the round of eight on Tuesday, causing yet another sleepless night.
Sun is vying to become just the second female from New Zealand to make it to the final four of a Grand Slam, following Belinda Cordwell at the Australian Open in 1989.
“Hopefully it will be closer to the start of the night or at the other end, where we can have a cooked breakfast to go with our next match watching,” said Sheppard, who recalls Sun defeating the team’s best players at the age of thirteen.
