Wimbledon 2024 Sensation Lulu Sun Cites ‘Mentality in Europe’ as Reason Behind Playing for University of Texas

Lulu Sun decided to ditch the European tradition by attending university and playing college tennis. The New Zealand-born player explained the reason behind her bold decision and how she overcame her doubters.

Speaking to Functional Tennis, Sun admitted that she did not even consider attending university. The reason behind this was the European mindset, which states that if a player gets admitted to a university, they do not intend to turn pro.

When she considered enrolling in the University of Texas, she was advised not to do so and was instead urged to go pro.

Sun, however, clarified that this was not the situation in the United States, and playing college tennis had nothing to do with becoming a pro or not. As a result, she had a memorable experience while training under university coach Howard Joffee.

“It’s different in America I think it’s good to go to university whether you go pro or not but in Europe it’s like you either go to university or you go pro. There’s no like in between. So there’s like some people’s like ‘Oh why, you know you’re pretty good at tennis. You should you know go pro’,” recalled Sun.

 

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This year is a memorable one for Lulu. Not only did she debut in all four majors, but she also had a deep run in one of them — Wimbledon.

She was able to reach the quarterfinal of what was just her first-ever grass-court grand slam and also defeated a top 10 player – Qinwen Zheng – in the process. With this, she became the first-ever New Zealand woman to reach this level at Wimbledon in the Open Era.

She then went on to make her debut at a WTA Tour 1000 tournament by qualifying for the Cincinnati Masters where she won the round of 32 against Linda Nosková.

Continuing her success, she also reached the final of her first-ever WTA Tour tournament — the Monterrey Open, where she lost to Nosková, whom she defeated in Cincinnati. She will next face America’s Ashlyn Krueger at the China Open.