Lulu Sun reaches Wimbledon quarter-finals after Raducanu upset

New Zealand’s Lulu Sun defeated home favourite Emma Raducanu on Centre Court at Wimbledon on Monday morning (AEST), continuing her incredible run at the Grand Slam in London.

The 23-year-old, ranked No.123 in the world, entered the tournament through qualifying and had never won a main draw match at a Grand Slam prior to this month.

Now, she’s into the Wimbledon quarter-finals, becoming the first woman to go from qualifying to the last eight of a major in 14 years.

Sun showed great composure to see off Raducanu in the round of 16, with the British crowd strongly behind the 2021 US Open champion.

“I don’t even have the words right now,” the Kiwi shared after prevailing 6-2, 5-7, 6-2.

“I really had to fight tooth and nail against her, because she’s obviously going to have to run for every ball and fight until the end.”

Sun’s aggressive play rewarded

Sun outplayed Raducanu across virtually every metric in the match, but two areas stood out in particular: winners and net approaches.

The qualifier crushed an impressive 52 winners across the course of her clash with Raducanu, who only notched 19 of her own. She also moved into the net far more, winning 23 of 28 approaches, while Raducanu was at three from seven.

Following her victory, Sun credited Roger Federer as her inspiration for aggressive grass-court tennis.

The New Zealander is obviously still a heavy underdog at tennis bookmakers, but she now has an opening to go even further in London.

Up next, she faces Croat Donna Vekic — another unseeded player this year at Wimbledon.

Alcaraz and Sinner continue on Wimbledon collision course

Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner are now just one match away from meeting for a 10th time.

The pair won their respective round-of-16 matches on Monday morning and will clash in the semi-finals later this week if they can navigate their respective quarter-finals.

Sinner saw off the dangerous Ben Shelton to book his spot in the last eight at Wimbledon, winning 6-2, 6-4, 7-6 (9) over the American.

Alcaraz dropped another set against Frenchman Ugo Humbert, prevailing 6-3, 6-4, 1-6, 7-5 against the No.16 seed.

The two sit neck-and-neck in the tournament’s outright betting odds, with Sinner on $2.62 and Alcaraz a whisker behind at $2.75.

They met just last month in the semi-finals of the French Open, where Alcaraz prevailed in five sets.

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