Lulu Sun's massive rise up the rankings revealed

Lulu Sun’s rise in the tennis world has been confirmed while her Olympic teammate is on top of the world.

Sun has jumped up 70 places in the latest WTA rankings to world number 53 after her run from qualifying through to the quarter-finals at Wimbledon.

Doubles partner at the Paris Olympics Erin Routliffe made a smaller but more significant jump in the doubles ranking, officially claiming the top ranking in women’s doubles after finishing runner-up at Wimbledon.

A year ago Sun was 270th in the world and entered the qualifying stages at the grand slam in London as world number 123.

The last New Zealander to sit inside the top 60 was Marina Erakovic in 2014, who had a career-high of 39th in 2012.

The highest ranking by a New Zealand woman was Belinda Cordwell when the Australian Open semifinalist reached a career-high of 17th in the world in 1989, the year she won the Singapore Open.

French Open winner Iga Swiatek remains the number one ranked player with Wimbledon runner-up Jasmine Paolini moving into fifth after starting 2024 in 30th. Wimbledon winner Barbora Krejcikova was also a big mover jumping from 32nd to 10th.

Sun’s new ranking means she will avoid qualifying for grand slams after becoming the first qualifier to reach the final eight at Wimbledon since 2010. It also means invites to bigger tournaments and more prize money after earning a career-high $782,056 last week. Earlier this year she won $10,022 for winning a lower-level ITF event.

“I’m going to be able to play more WTA tournaments... it will be a lot easier to schedule in tournaments which will benefit a lot because time is important and it helps you if you’re able to schedule better and go to the tournaments where you know in advance where you’re going to go, it helps with preparation and training,” she said after her Wimbledon run ended.

“It will definitely help me in development and progress.”

“Even when you’re 80 or 90 it’s really a tough environment because when you’re playing the ITF’s you’re not really getting as much money as you do if you’re playing the top events, the grand slams or the top WTA events. So you really have to pay everything by yourself. And this is not exactly a cheap sport,” Sun added.

“You can get a racquet and ball and play with your friends but as a professional it’s not a cheap sport. Everyone at the ITF level is fighting to get to this position so it’s something each and every player is working hard every day. So to have that jump is really important and necessary to further develop. With that you can prepare better.”

Sun withdrew from this week’s Hungarian Grand Prix tournament as her ranking hadn’t updated and it was a tight turnaround to make the qualifying. Instead, she will begin preparation for the Paris Olympics where she will play in the doubles with Routliffe.

“The Olympics is something bigger than yourself. You’re representing a country. Erin has a lot of experience on tour already. I’ve just experienced Wimbledon so I think with both of our experiences on tour so far and our games, I think will give 100% obviously to each match that we’re going to play, and give it all for New Zealand.”

This article was first published on nzherald.co.nz and is republished here with permission