Lulu Sun

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].

Sun speaks English, French, and Mandarin, is learning Korean, and hopes to one day learn Japanese.^[8]

She has an older sister, Phenomena Radovčić (born 1998), who played in professional tournaments until 2016.^[9]

At the start of her career Sun, at that time playing under the name Lucija Radovčić, represented Croatia from 2011–2013.^[10] In 2013 she competed at the Girls G12 European Nations Challenge, playing together with Iva Zelić and Ukraine-born Oleksandra Oliynykova.^[11]

As a teenager, Sun entered a number of ITF senior tour events, playing as Lulu Radovcic^[12] and later as Lulu Sun.

Sun represented Switzerland as a junior, finishing runner-up with Violet Apisah in the 2018 Australian Open girls' doubles. 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]

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 May 2022, she won her first big ITF title at the Saint-Gaudens Open, partnering Fernanda Contreras in doubles.^[16] She made her WTA Tour main-draw debut at the Morocco Open two days later, where she received a wildcard into the singles draw.^[17]

Sun made her Grand Slam debut at the 2024 Australian Open after qualifying.^[18][19] On her WTA 1000 debut, she recorded her first win at that level at the Dubai Championships as a wildcard, following the retirement of Paula Badosa.^[20] As a result, she moved to a new career-high singles ranking of No. 151, on 26 February 2024.

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.^[21][1] In May, Sun won the singles and doubles titles at the W100 Bonita Springs tournament in Florida.^[22] She reached the top 125 on 17 June 2024.

She qualified for the 2024 Wimbledon Championships making her debut at this major and upset eighth seed Zheng Qinwen in the first round.^[23] 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^[24] and the fourth with a win over Zhu Lin.^[25] 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.^[26][27] 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.^[28] Her run finally ended in the quarter-finals where she was beaten in three sets by Donna Vekić.^[29][30] She would go on to represent New Zealand for 2024 Olympics.^[31]

She has a 1–0 (100%) record against players who were, at the time the match was played, ranked in the top 10

• Lulu Sun at the Women's Tennis Association
• Lulu Sun at the International Tennis Federation
• Lulu Sun at the Billie Jean King Cup