The 23-year-old was born in Te Anau, and her parents lived outside the Southland town after taking ownership of Takaro Lodge in the early ‘90s – a resort previously owned by Stockton Rush, father of OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush III, who was one of five people who died aboard the Titan submersible last year.
Though her family left Te Anau when Sun was 5 years old, they return regularly, with Sun well-known among locals for her participation at the local tennis club whenever she returns.
Te Anau long-distance runner Dwight Grieve said he has been fitness training with Sun and her family for many years and that it was stunning to see Sun perform so well on the world stage.
“It’s such a buzz to see someone from a wee town do so well … When you see someone that’s just a really nice and genuine, true person make it, it’s really cool.”
He said the atmosphere in town had been really positive since Sun’s Wimbledon run.
“When you bump into people, you just talk about Lulu and what’s going on. It’s really cool to have someone from the wee town succeed so well. It just helps pull people together. It’s really, really good to see positivity around regardless of where you are, particularly in a small community where we all know each other.”
President of the Te Anau tennis club, Greg Sheppard, said about twenty people gathered at the tennis club rooms on Tuesday night to watch Sun face off with Vekic, and despite the outcome, they were all proud and hoping to do it again come the Olympics and the US Open.
“It’s surreal, really. We haven’t had this sort of fame before, and I’m not used to this, but Lulu has just gone awesomely well. It’s exciting.”
The club held a coaching group down on their courts the day following her record-breaking win and had five brand new tennis players having their first session with the club’s coach.
“I’d like to think it was for Lulu that they came along and wanted to have a go at tennis. And I can only assume that come summertime, when it’s the tennis season, hopefully numbers grow as well.”
The club’s tennis courts were built in 2011; prior to that, tennis matches were played at the local college.
At that time, the club had six members – in 2024, membership has ballooned to 120 people.
He said Sun usually made a yearly appearance when her family were on holiday, and she last visited the club following the Australian Open.
“She’s always just looking for people to hit with because there’s not heaps of people around to hit with when you come to this neck of the woods, so we send her some players and she bashes them.”
He said Sun has now added to the exclusive ranks of Wimbledon players that have also played the courts at the Te Anau tennis club, which includes Lorenzo Mussetti, Cameron Norrie, and Michael Venus.
“It just shows you that it can be done. Even if you come from a small town, you can still make it big on the world stage.”
Ben Tomsett is a Multimedia Journalist for the New Zealand Herald, based in Dunedin