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.
Sun has relished her role as the underdog and will have no fear going against a partisan crowd
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.
© OfficialAffairs
