Wimbledon star doubles career earnings and given free tickets for life after Raducanu win

Lulu Sun reached the quarter-finals of a Grand Slam for the first time in her career by defeating Emma Raducanu 6-2, 5-7, 6-2 and by doing so, the world No. 123 joined a very lucrative club.

Wimbledon chiefs invite those who have achieved the same feat to join their ‘Last 8 Club’ which guarantees them free tickets to the Grand Slam and access to hospitality suites at the Championships once they retire from the sport.

After knocking Britain’s last contender for a singles title out, Sun not only gets free tickets for life from the All England Club but banked a guaranteed £375,000 in the process, which could rise even higher if she defeats Donna Vekic to reach the semi-finals.

New Zealander Sun had previously made £244k in her career up until this point, a total engulfed by the amount she stands to walk away with when her SW19 tournament comes to an end. The top prize is a whopping £2.7million.

But the 23-year-old is confident that she will stay grounded despite her growing success. When asked how much her life is going to change after beating Raducanu, Sun replied: “I mean, I don't think so that much. I'm going to still play tennis next tournament, keep on training. I don't think much is going to change.”

And although she is playing just her first professional season after graduating from college in Texas, Sun doesn’t feel that her rapid rise has been out of the blue. “I don't think it's surprising,” she said when asked about coming through as a qualifier.

“At the same time I wasn't thinking, Oh, I'm going to be in the quarter-finals of Wimbledon. I honestly was just like, Okay, first match. I got through it. I was like, Okay, next match. After I passed qualies, I was super delighted because the last quallies I played at Wimbledon, I lost in the final round of quallies in three sets. I was super disappointed.

“When you're so close to qualifying, it kind of hurts your heart. So just getting to the main draw was a big step already. Playing all these players up until now, it's just opportunity, a new opportunity each time. Yeah, I'm super grateful to be able to play another match here, yeah.”

Sun insisted that the level of competition in the qualifying rounds are not worldly different from reaching the main draw. And after winning seven matches already with Raducanu her latest conquest, £375k in her pocket and free Wimbledon tickets for life, she will be confident of going even further with a wide-open draw at her mercy.

“I think the qualies in general, it's not the level that you play there. It's not that big of a difference in the main draw,” Sun concluded. “Obviously the points are different. That's why we're there.

“In terms of the tennis, we're not that much different, far off, from the top hundred. It's just that little you have to get far in some tournaments, obviously in the big tournaments, to make that jump.”