00:00:00
[Music] kiwi's Love at First like Finn we're making [Music] [Applause] waves generate switch online
00:00:14
[Music] today lulusan welcome to my podcast happy to be here and this is your um
00:00:26
first ever in-person podcast yes how so uh just I never had the opportunity to kind of do one so I mean since I was
00:00:38
traveling everywhere in pre-season so I did them mostly on Zoom so this is a good opportunity kind of see what it's
00:00:46
like to be in a podcast Studio well is it a good opportunity we'll um we'll
00:00:51
find out at the end um and we're recording this on um Boxing Day 2024 uh which is most new zealanders is at the
00:00:59
beach now um but I'm here working and you're you're working as well you're
00:01:02
back in New Zealand for the ASB classic yes so Christmas day yesterday what did that look like uh I had a like a morning
00:01:10
break you know to stay in but uh then I was up and training and it was funny cuz
00:01:16
like uh we went to the club and every like the gym was Pitch Black you know there was no one there apart from tennis
00:01:24
players so it was really kind of funny to see uh on Christmas day that the only people working was like tennis players
00:01:31
yeah and and this is officially um the biggest Entourage of anyone that's coming for a podcast so you came in with
00:01:38
your PA yeah your sister yeah and who else and a friend of ours how good you've got an Entourage this is badass I
00:01:49
love it um now let me let me see if I've got this the straight the the Lulu Sun
00:01:54
backstory so um you're 23 years old yes you're born in Tiano yes um Chinese mom Croatian Dad yes oh
00:02:04
German stepdad yes and you left New Zealand for Shanghai when you were like four five ah something like that but I
00:02:12
didn't stay for long in Shanghai yeah it was like a couple years but then I started tennis um and that's when I
00:02:20
moved uh to Florida and then that's where I kind of started my tennis Journey where did Switzerland I've got
00:02:30
that you were in Switzerland for a while as well yeah so I kind of moved when I was like eight or nine um and I've
00:02:38
stayed there you know until University I guess but because of like tournaments I
00:02:45
don't I don't I'm not there often so do you do you feel like in New Zealander like you're such um you're
00:02:52
such a citizen of the world yeah I mean I do like I think because I was in the south
00:02:59
a lot or I try to be like I come back every so often um I really enjoy it and I always feel like oh I'm back home and
00:03:09
that's the same like if I go back to China or if I go back to Switzerland like oh I'm home um because like yeah
00:03:17
because I don't know I've like I grew up in it and I like know how everything
00:03:21
works and you know and it just feels comfortable versus like oh if you go to let's say I don't know a somewhere in
00:03:30
Africa or the Middle East you know you're not used to that and so you feel like uncomfortable in a way but in these
00:03:37
countes that I grew up in I I always whenever I come back I I feel at home and and at ease and tianao is a
00:03:45
beautiful place yeah it's absolutely stunning um on this trip back to New Zealand you're not going to get to go
00:03:51
down there but yanana has come up to ockland to see you yeah and you told me uh just before we started recording that
00:03:56
um after the Aussie open you're hoping to maybe get down there yeah yeah yeah
00:04:00
I'll get your PA to sort out some something hey um well it's wonderful to
00:04:05
have you playing for New Zealand now so you've played tennis for Croatia for for
00:04:10
Switzerland and now New Zealand yes yeah H hell of a story how this all this all
00:04:16
came about at the beginning of R about this time last yeah no the beginning of 2024 yeah yeah we'll get to that shortly
00:04:21
but first of all um I I found online um five of the best what I'll call Sun pun headlines and I'm
00:04:31
sure you've you've heard of all of these or seen all of them um so I want to run
00:04:36
these past you and see what you think is the the best okay name based pun headline to do with you Sun outshines
00:04:45
opponent okay you've by the way do these get tiresome or you quite like it I
00:04:50
don't know because I have I don't really most of the time I don't look at them
00:04:55
like unless my family or my friends they're like H look you know look at the title and then I
00:05:02
was like oh okay okay so yeah there's Sun outshines opponent um sun's out wets
00:05:08
out okay um Here Comes the Sun okay sun outshines ranu and um sun has risen to brighten
00:05:19
Wimbledon oh wow that's a long one have you heard any of these or you see do you
00:05:24
do you not have Google alerts out on your name no no do you do you just find it's unhealthy to read stuff about
00:05:30
yourself or no I just I don't really have that interest really um and again like usually when I do hear about stuff
00:05:40
it's usually someone else telling me and I'm like oh okay but I don't I don't
00:05:45
know I'm not very interested like I I just like cuz I know what happened right
00:05:51
I did the interviews so I'm like I know what's happening um but uh yeah so
00:05:57
usually it's like you know my friend or my family they would look into it and
00:06:02
they're like oh look at this what you said haha that's so funny I was like
00:06:06
okay that's um that's such a healthy attitude to have um because I suppose if
00:06:11
you read the good stuff about yourself again you know what the result is you know if you read the good stuff about
00:06:16
yourself you also sort of have to read the bad stuff as well and exact and I don't want to really get into it so I
00:06:22
just keep myself out of it most of the time and it's kind of like you know also
00:06:26
on social media you know as especially like coming up in itfs like the smaller tournaments there's a lot of um which is
00:06:36
like this is also an issue which a lot of players have said is like the betters they would like whether they bet you to
00:06:44
lose or win they would comment on your social media and like I found that it was like kind of like if I kept looking
00:06:52
at it it would just be worse so I just kind of I stopped kind of being too much into it and just kind of focusing on
00:07:02
everything else really yeah you say that like it's no big deal but that's that's
00:07:07
easier said than done I I think if I was in your position and there was some someone that wrote a negative article
00:07:12
about me I'd be looking to see who wrote the article I'd be Googling them looking
00:07:16
them on social media scrolling through their old photos I'd be consumed by it I
00:07:22
mean you know you get like positives and you get support and obviously there's
00:07:27
going to be the other side of it so people can have their opinions um and you know everyone thinks differently or
00:07:37
views differently um depending on you know how you looked at it so to me I just I'm not going to fight I'm not
00:07:45
going to be worried about someone else's opinion because you know I have my own
00:07:49
opinions as well on on different topics and different people so I just I just let it go kind of because it's not like
00:07:57
I can do much about it right oh good for you have you like a sports psychologist or anything or any mentors
00:08:04
or coaches or is this just something that this is just what I think yeah yeah that's I suppose you have to be because
00:08:10
otherwise you'd just be a maniac he there so there'd be so much distractions
00:08:13
off the court that would just not yeah good for you did you like any of those what was your favorite out of those five
00:08:20
um probably the wimbl one was kind of long though sun has risen to brighten Wimbledon six words I thought that was
00:08:32
really good I thought it was really clever um okay so yeah let's reflect on the year 2020 2024 because it's been
00:08:39
it's been a crazy year and when we'll go through everything bit by bit um but at
00:08:43
the beginning of the year um you came to New Zealand uh to play the ASB classic as a relative unknown playing for
00:08:49
Switzerland then there was the whole wimon thing that happened uh the Olympic Games you started the year 2024 as the
00:08:57
210th best tennis player in the world and you're sitting here now as um the 40th best tennis player in the world um
00:09:03
for me and anyone else that has no clue how this works like what is the difference between 210 and 40th in terms
00:09:10
of your game and things to be honest like the top 200 players there's not in
00:09:17
a level of play there's not really much of a difference it's just that you know
00:09:23
the if you're 200 of course you're not going to play all like the WTA events
00:09:29
which has more points and more money because you're not going to get in all of them and so those smaller tournaments
00:09:37
per se um they're going to have you know you all going to be similar level but
00:09:44
you're going to fight for points that are much less and which going to which
00:09:49
is going to give you like less of a jump right um and obviously there's the other
00:09:55
part of you know you're not earning as much money as top let's say 60 um
00:10:02
obviously depends where you're from um and I'd say so then you wouldn't have
00:10:08
such a big team like a top 20 player or top 30 or top 40 um so it's like kind of
00:10:14
hard to juggle and so your schedule is also very hectic because you don't know
00:10:19
which tournament you're going to get in um so that's probably the only difference and obviously like maybe the
00:10:25
top 20 and top 10 physically they might be stronger um but game wise also more experience um and probably they see the
00:10:36
game better but in general it's quite I'd say the same it's just maybe someone
00:10:44
more has a little bit more fight in them or maybe they have better tactics or something those small things yeah well
00:10:51
thanks for that explanation so so so so when you rank 200 200th in the world on a good day you could still beat like
00:10:58
someone that's number in the top 10 uh I'd say like 200 versus top 10 the
00:11:05
the top 10 is a bit different because I think that like I said they probably have I'd say better physical than
00:11:13
someone who's 200 because they've been on tour for a longer period of time and
00:11:20
they've also played High more high intensity matches than someone let's say in 200 with
00:11:29
play um and so it's kind of a like the season for the top 10 player is very different from a
00:11:39
season who a player who's 200 M okay what's so from where you are now top 40th in the world um what's the
00:11:50
difference between say 40 and top 10 like can can you get there this year I mean I'm going to anything's possible
00:11:57
right um but uh it's definitely going to take a lot of work um I still have a lot
00:12:02
of areas to improve um and like of course this is like probably technically my first year on tour because uh at
00:12:13
least for the WTA it is because for the past two years I haven't really played a
00:12:18
lot of WTA tournaments I have played mostly itfs and that's like a whole another SST like WTA is mainly apart
00:12:26
from the grand slams it's all the High tournament High Lev tournaments that you see on TV and then the rest of
00:12:34
them below that is the ITF tournaments and that's what like outside the top 100
00:12:39
that's what they play what is so WTA women's tennis Association and what's it
00:12:44
International tennis Federation and and this this year 2024 you're' being named
00:12:49
the WTA newcomer of the year it's awesome yeah that's so badass like the
00:12:56
other play I knew the ones who are not at as well I knew what they achieved and they've also achieved like really great
00:13:04
things so I was super you know honored and and grateful to to be able to see receive the award and it just meant like
00:13:12
how you know this year what we've accomplished but also like it's kind of
00:13:17
a sign to kind of keep moving forward and and keep working hard for for the next you know level yeah 100% build on
00:13:25
that momentum and and speaking of that so 2025 if everything um that you dream or manifest happens how will the year
00:13:34
look uh I'm hoping you know I'm trying to work hard to to be able to you know
00:13:40
win a WTA tournament I was close this year I went to the finals um in a 500 so that's what I'm hoping
00:13:49
to uh achieve in the next season and as well as like obviously keep improving my ranking um because
00:13:58
that helps as well you know if you're seated in a tournament versus you're
00:14:02
unseated it makes a big difference sometimes um and you know to to go far in the
00:14:10
slams yeah do you do you allow yourself to think really big like real [ __ ] big like like like Grand Slam big like
00:14:17
can you win a grand slam I mean that's what I think everyone's working for as a
00:14:21
tennis player you know you dream to to be on those big stages to achieve big things um and and you know it's kind of
00:14:30
a step-by-step process obviously um so it's it's not going to come like that um
00:14:37
but that's where I'm heading towards that's where I'm working for yeah
00:14:43
because as someone um that knows very little about tennis like it seems on paper like you you could be able to do
00:14:49
it like you betat m ricano at wimon last year and she's won the US Open so it's
00:14:55
like you're capable of beating someone that's you look at it that way yeah it
00:15:00
not as not as easy as that it's not because um you know every year there's
00:15:05
different um like maybe they resurface the courts or the balls are different like for example when she won US Open
00:15:14
the balls were actually different from what US Open balls are now and so there's very different scenarios and you
00:15:20
know she might have been playing that year like amazing tennis and she might have you know felt she was obviously
00:15:28
injury free so it's like different kind of things that happen um and you never
00:15:34
know what what can happen and obviously like the draw matters you can have an easy draw you can have a tough draw um
00:15:42
and it just it depends so if you I think you know to if you work hard enough and
00:15:48
you're able to kind of work through all these things it doesn't matter what's
00:15:52
going to come your way you're able to like kind of move past it so that's
00:15:56
where I kind of want to be so you don't have to it's not I wouldn't say luck per
00:16:01
se um but you know there's certain timings that have to happen sometimes and I I hope that I can work you know
00:16:09
well enough to you know not have to have those certain timings in place sometimes
00:16:15
and just kind of you know pave my my way yeah so a lot of variables that go yeah
00:16:20
a lot of variables yeah okay um so let's go back to the early years so what are
00:16:25
you what are your memories of Tiano as a as a as like a tiny do you have many m memories of them is a like a toddler um
00:16:32
honestly a lot of my memories from Tio is basically like Farm life because that's most of the cell and is like
00:16:42
forests and sheep and and all that um and yeah basically nature most of it yeah and your older sister who's um just
00:16:54
sitting through the glass now hi um is that sort of how you got to tenis yeah so originally my mom wanted her to start
00:17:03
playing and as a younger sibling you know whatever your older sister does you do um so I was kind of I I was put into
00:17:12
it and at that time like when I started playing um my my friends at which were my age were already kind of doing mini
00:17:22
tennis rallying and she was you know playing as well and like I I was struggling to kind of hit a bowl like
00:17:32
just hit it over the net so my mom was like super concerned and she was like maybe we should change sport where she
00:17:42
doesn't have to move um so she was like thinking of changing to golf but then
00:17:48
she's like nah that's too complicated so then she's just stuck with it and I was
00:17:52
just like I kept going and because I'm super competitive by Nature I I think
00:17:59
because having growing up with you know my sister and we're both playing the
00:18:03
same thing I've always wanted to you know catch up to her and you know beat her so I think that was kind of a
00:18:11
helpful kind of tool and motivation from the Geto um and that kind of helped me gradually pave like my game and my
00:18:22
tennis yeah was was your mom quite quite pushy or was she just sort of like um yeah have a go at tennis if you like it
00:18:29
you can play it if you don't like it we'll find something else um well I at
00:18:33
that point I've already like had to go at different sports I I was skiing I was
00:18:41
I did ballet I did music so I was kind of in different activities um and kind of that point I
00:18:51
was just a lot of the hours were in tennis but then again you know I I was in school so
00:18:59
it wasn't like eight hours a day or something like that it was just like maybe two hours or one hour um and
00:19:06
especially like when I started Middle School I would only have like an hour a day or an hour and a half in that after
00:19:14
I finished school and before I had to study so it I don't know it just kind of
00:19:19
happened that way like I've tennis just kind of happened and I stuck to it um so
00:19:27
I don't know it wasn't really pushy I guess but it was just it happened in a
00:19:32
way that's so annoying so you're the 40th best tennis player in the world you
00:19:37
made the top 16 at Wimbledon and the quote is tennis just kind of happened WTF that's crazy because I've had um uh
00:19:46
Lydia do you know Lydia Co at all have you met her I haven't met her unfortunately but I know I obviously I
00:19:53
know her of her she's I I had her um early mental skill coach David NE on the
00:19:59
podcast and he started working with her when she was like seven or eight and and
00:20:04
his job or the instructions that he was given by her parents was to try and sort
00:20:07
of you know hold her back because she just wanted to she was obsessed like she had that and it seems
00:20:15
like you've always been quite balanced with the tennis like you know you've
00:20:17
just been quite normal and well adjusted yeah I mean it wasn't like originally
00:20:23
it's not like we my mom was like you're going to be a professional tennis player
00:20:27
or I didn't look at like a match and I was like I'm going to be a professional
00:20:31
tennis player when I was like 5 years old it just kind of I was doing it for the fun and I was doing it cuz as well
00:20:38
like she put us into sports you know because it's healthy for you and it's
00:20:41
good to move around so we were never kind of go thinking about being a professional tennis um it just kind of
00:20:51
gradually happened again um and towards like the end of my juniors I kind of uh cuz I was playing all the grand slams
00:21:00
obviously and you see like all the professionals and I thought it was quite you know cool to experience that and and
00:21:09
kind of the system of how they play and all and I would see like all their coaches and the way they warmed up and I
00:21:15
was like wow that's so like professional which I'm not doing any of that but um
00:21:21
um yeah so but then I also you know had to focus on my studies as well and that's why I went to
00:21:29
University um because my mom was very keen on kind of you know getting first that degree and you know having some
00:21:37
sort of safety net for you to kind of Go full on or you know to have no doubts kind of um something to fall back on
00:21:47
yeah like you never know because sometimes tennis players like you have really good tennis players but then they
00:21:54
have injuries and that have they have to stop um and or sometimes I don't know
00:22:00
something happens like look at Co you know it's like you never know what could
00:22:04
happen and so to have something as a safety net is always a good idea it's not you know nothing bad comes from it
00:22:13
so and you still love it yeah yeah yeah have you read the um the Andre Agy book open yeah yeah like he you read that and
00:22:21
like tennis has been very good for good to him um but he's got a very it's a
00:22:26
heartbreaking book like he's got a very sort of conflicted relationship with the
00:22:29
sport that's made him famous um yeah would you recognize that if you were getting to that
00:22:34
point um I mean probably um and I think people around me would probably recognize um but I don't think I that's
00:22:46
why I try to like kind of balance things out and to try to I mean obviously I have to think about it outside of the
00:22:54
Court as well a bit but I think I have kind of balance it out if not then you're just going to kind of go a bit
00:23:03
crazy yeah I had h of um heaps of like retired all blacks and other sports stars on the podcast and that most of
00:23:10
them say the same thing like um in the end what got to them was not the not the weekend stuff like playing the game but
00:23:15
it was the in between stuff like the training during the week the meetings during the week and the other stuff that
00:23:21
you know you don't see um I'm guessing to get to your level like there's
00:23:24
there's a lot of other [ __ ] that goes on behind the scenes yeah I mean it's a lot
00:23:29
of hours of practice it's a lot of hours of Fitness um and also you know you
00:23:36
review um your matches with your coach um so there's all sorts of things that
00:23:42
happen in the background that usually um I think majority of the people don't see
00:23:48
um because even at tournaments when you're practicing it's kind of you practice an hour an hour and a half
00:23:54
maybe but it's not the same as you know let's say preseason or maybe during the
00:23:58
season and you have like two weeks off before you train no one like is going to go and watch you like there's not going
00:24:05
to be a crowd of people that is watching you so it's it's definitely but it's necessary right it's
00:24:12
you have to do those things to improve otherwise it's it's tough to kind of do
00:24:18
it in in a tournament um but yeah that's why I think a lot of tennis players you
00:24:24
know you're constantly traveling you're constantly with the same people you
00:24:27
constantly see the same people um and after a while you it it does get repetitive but that's why I think it's
00:24:37
really important to kind of just go outside of that system in a way and so you're not so um I don't know how to
00:24:47
explain like I don't know you get out of energy or maybe you you find it like
00:24:53
boring or you find it um like you can't do it anymore so I think that's it's
00:24:58
like a really good way to just kind of balance it out do do you ever wake up in the morning and have to pause for a
00:25:05
second and think about where in the world you are um do any not so much like where but like what day is it what is
00:25:14
like is it Monday is it Sunday yeah you don't even you've got a PA now you've
00:25:19
got Dominica sitting out there so you don't even need to worry about that [ __ ]
00:25:22
she can tell you what day of the week it is yeah how cool how that must be cool having a PA
00:25:28
yeah she's a she's a good good very good PA and bosses me around oh you're the
00:25:37
boss oh yeah but you know it's good like you have someone telling you oh you have
00:25:43
this on your schedule and that you know it's it's a good thing yeah that's great
00:25:48
so um Chris Bing from tennis New Zealand um so it was almost a year ago was that
00:25:53
the beginning of uh 2024 yeah when you were in New Zealand for the ASB classic as a Switzerland
00:25:58
player that you connected with him so how did how did that come about um he's
00:26:04
living to your DMs SL didn't he on social media slid into your DMs yeah I think so I don't
00:26:12
like and then I spoke with my team I was like oh I think like New Zealand like someone from New Zealand is contacted me
00:26:23
and they're like oh just like see what like he wants to talk about or something
00:26:29
and yeah so that kind of happened such aand way to go didn't know how to reach out to you so a DM slide
00:26:38
it's fine so then then you you guys went for a walk around um Mount Eden yeah
00:26:43
mount B yeah yeah and then what did you talk about just like what tennis New Zealand's at um kind of what the future
00:26:54
would hold and all that General stuff yeah so what did he try and sort of like like you know woo you or convince you to
00:27:02
come to not really I mean he was just like kind of showing what tennis New Zealand is at and again like what the
00:27:11
future could hold but he's like I'm not like doing any I'm just informing you
00:27:17
and I was like okay good to know you know um and I I mean technically I've also played for New Zealand at one point
00:27:26
during Juniors because they had a different um system at one point um so I did play like for a short term uh for
00:27:35
New Zealand before um yeah but um it was kind of I I at that point I wasn't really you know there was nothing to
00:27:46
think about it was just kind of oh here's some information and that was yeah so do they have to like offer you
00:27:53
offer you something like do they get like give you some money to like come and play with us war between Switzerland
00:27:59
and new I'm sorry I'm so curious about this because New Zealand tennis doesn't
00:28:03
want anything to do with me so and most people listening to this will never be in a situation where they have like
00:28:08
countries like fighting fighting over them yeah it's a strange position to be
00:28:12
in yeah because I I was like it's very hard to kind of choose which country to
00:28:21
kind of play for because one I've played for Switzerland practically all my life
00:28:27
but I've als also grew up in New Zealand and I I you know it's not like I'm not
00:28:35
from there or I wasn't I didn't grow up there it's not foreign to me
00:28:40
so I I was very conflicted about it um but then also like I thought about like you know tennis obviously you know we
00:28:51
have Aaron as uh she's number one doubles player and she's a great great
00:28:57
doubles player and she's doing really well as well oh yeah you guys went to the Olympics together yeah yeah yeah um
00:29:03
and so I was kind of thinking about how you know tennis Swiss tennis has obviously great players in the past and
00:29:13
they have great players now um and I was thinking about how you know if I were to
00:29:20
play for New Zealand I would be able to kind of bring you know inspiration in a way and you kind of grow tennis in New
00:29:30
Zealand because obviously you know rugby is such a prominent sport here or Cricket you know
00:29:36
so I don't think tennis is one of like the top sports here but um it's nice to
00:29:42
always see you know people enjoy it and people who are curious about tennis and and want to develop in tennis and I just
00:29:50
think you know if we were to be able to in the future to have more more and more
00:29:57
players represent new well more and more better tennis players um in New Zealand
00:30:03
it would be you know something really really cool um cuz I mean Australia has really good tennis players and we're
00:30:10
we're you know their neighbors so we gota we got to improve our our um players here yes yeah CU Switzerland
00:30:20
must have been so pissed off after Wimbledon uh I mean do you how does that conversation go or does do do you just
00:30:26
send them a note saying Hey I'm is it a process changing the country that you're
00:30:30
playing for uh yeah but it's just like you send an email and that's then they
00:30:37
change it yeah like the flag on it's not you just sent an email saying yeah but
00:30:44
um yeah I mean I'm still like really good relations with with like tennis and
00:30:52
we're all good and I mean decisions have to be made at some point like I had I
00:30:57
had to choose one or the other so and you know once it was done I have to move forward
00:31:07
right yeah well in the in the term of a lifespan the tennis career is a very small part of it so you have to look
00:31:12
after look after number one don't you you have to do what's right for you oh
00:31:15
good for you well as a um as a proud New Zealander I'm very happy with the decision you made so good for you and
00:31:22
apologies to Switzerland um okay let's talk about wimam this was like from a
00:31:27
viewing persp persective this was surreal so I can't imagine what it was like you know being being you so so you
00:31:34
go to Wimbledon as um as like a qualifier yeah yeah what does that mean so in all the grand slams usually the
00:31:43
qualifiers are playing one week before and they usually play at the vicinity of the Grand Slam but with wimbl then
00:31:51
because of the grass we have to play at another site so it's not at Wimbledon and and you play there for a
00:31:59
week um the guys play at the same time and depending on the schedule like you either play three days in a row or you
00:32:10
play one day and then you don't play in the next day so so on and so forth um
00:32:16
and it's pretty grueling because I think everyone's trying to fight and to
00:32:21
qualify um cuz how how many people how many people get through to the tournament
00:32:26
proper uh I think eight I think so eight um yeah so and there's like 100 it's
00:32:39
128 draw I think so it's w yeah so you go through three matches basically um and yeah you just kind of
00:32:50
fight it out and I almost didn't qualify again um in the second round but I managed to pull through and yeah just
00:32:59
kept fighting so so so you qualify for Wimbledon proper and um what's that like
00:33:06
uh who who do you call first you call your mom uh she was actually there so um but
00:33:15
yeah so I mean my mom was there my coaches were there so I was just kind of okay we did this it's nice but I also
00:33:26
did it in Australia no and so I was kind of like now like let's try to you know kind of keep working you
00:33:35
know it's not over um there's still more matches to come um because in Australian
00:33:41
Open I did qualify and I was like oh my God this is so amazing you know um and I
00:33:46
think I kind of was a bit over excited um and so I didn't really perform that
00:33:52
well on my first round and I was kind of like you know whatever happens now you're at you're at Wimbledon you're
00:33:59
playing you know one of the four grand slams you know just give it your all um and although I was like oh wouldn't it
00:34:09
be funny if I played a top player and then I ended up playing on the first round I was like oh no um and it's tough
00:34:16
because like obviously you've played matches beforehand um but you know playing a top
00:34:23
level player is like quite different um especially for a first round um but I was just thinking you know
00:34:32
you're you're given this opportunity you might as well you know put full fight
00:34:37
and full effort um and just see where it goes yeah so that opening round who was
00:34:42
the top player uh Jung tan she was uh the CH top one Chinese player she's number one in China and what's her uh
00:34:49
world ranking right now I think she's six in the world unreal unreal so you yeah so you were 200 something in the
00:34:57
world at this so you were you're lucky first of all you're lucky to be at
00:35:00
Wimbledon in the first place and in this first round there's a game there's a
00:35:05
match that no one's expecting you to win yeah did you think you could win did you
00:35:09
believe um I don't I didn't really put it on a win and lose I was just kind of
00:35:15
in the moment type of thing um and I didn't really look in the future like oh
00:35:22
my God I don't think I'm I'm going to win or I I am going to win sort of thing
00:35:27
um so yeah was just kind of in the moment and then um yeah because so you lose the game and you're out of the
00:35:34
tournament that's it you one experience over you win you you go and you keep
00:35:38
going until you lose a game so where was that game played was that on like the center quar or one of this a lot of
00:35:44
people may not know this about won because you see it on TV yeah um but it's actually Center Court is one court
00:35:49
but then it's a whole big complex there's courts every yeah so there's
00:35:52
Center Court which is the biggest Court then there's Court one which is still
00:35:58
big it's big compared to all the rest of the courts but it's smaller than the
00:36:02
Center Court um then there's Court three which is kind of it's a stadium as well
00:36:08
but smaller again than Court one uh then the rest of the courts are kind of called Ground courts and that's where
00:36:16
like people can walk by um so there's no like sitting and staying like people are
00:36:22
constantly walking by and you have to play during you know people can talk people can walk and anything um there's
00:36:29
also Court 18 which is like kind of a stadium is court because there's like a high seats here and then it's Court
00:36:39
here and then you have smaller seating here so it's like a smaller is Stadium
00:36:45
um but yeah then the rest of the courts are kind of ground courts um I played I was supposed to play on 18 but then they
00:36:52
move us because the the court was finishing faster in court three instead of Court 18 so we were moved to court 3
00:37:01
um which is a bigger Court I was like oh okay I guess we're moving also to a
00:37:07
bigger Court um so yeah it was quite a quite an first round experience how the hell did you not crumble under the
00:37:15
pressure you know you're playing a top 10 player um it's first time at wooden
00:37:19
you're lucky to be there you're on quart three like yeah when when you reflect on
00:37:24
that um [ __ ] you must be immensely proud of yourself yeah I mean I was as you say I was just
00:37:30
happy to be there and honestly like you know in the past I have like been nervy in a way like for example the first
00:37:39
round of Australian Open I was kind of nervy and I didn't perform and so this
00:37:44
time around I really you know just wanted to enjoy myself and kind of put in full effort um and just you know play
00:37:52
my game in a way um so that's kind of how I went on about it um and for the like
00:38:01
the crowd I kind of like don't put full Focus around it I just kind of first
00:38:08
before I look where my coaches are sometimes they sit like in different areas but yeah I first look out where
00:38:15
they are and then after that I just spot them and then I focus on the core and that's about it then you kind of it's
00:38:22
just outside noise in a way cuz as the tournament progressed um um here in New Zealand like it became it became like a
00:38:30
ground swell of support like um yeah like the name Lulu son was becoming bigger and the Sun was shining brighter
00:38:37
and the Sun was shining brighter and brighter with every every win and everyone was getting really excited and
00:38:42
in tianao at the local tennis club like you people were getting up early in the morning to go and watch it um what did
00:38:47
it feel like for you like were were you were you sort of cocooned from that or were you aware of the no the external
00:38:53
noise my family told me about it um and I was just like very very grateful for all of it um because I mean
00:39:04
any support you get is is really great um especially coming from my hometown is was quite crazy um to see people kind of
00:39:13
staying up so late um for to watch my matches um so it it was really surreal and then so what you have a game like
00:39:24
every oh really okay all right oh I just got the wrap up we got a wrap up game set match
00:39:39
um wow this is so cool it's it's been great to talk to you so um all right uh
00:39:45
where are we going to go okay so um yeah so you make it um how F you get in top 16 quarterfinals yes is that top eight
00:39:54
so uh yeah top eight yeah so because of that um there's lifetime perks like you're in I thing called the top eight
00:40:02
Club so you get to go to Wimbledon for the rest of your life and what happens some that's so cool right yeah oh my God
00:40:09
and what about some of the people you met you met um you got to rub shoulders with Martina never to lovera and Billy
00:40:14
Jean King what do those conversations look like do they give you some advice uh yeah they're giving advice about
00:40:22
tennis and off court tennis as well and it was kind of really crazy to you know meet those great tennis players great
00:40:32
champions from from the past um and you know just to meet them in general was amazing but to have also their
00:40:42
experience and and you know to listen to their knowledge as well was was great as
00:40:48
well and the the tennis record they got you that far is where's that is that
00:40:53
like a lucky record that you still play with or has it been auctioned off for charity or uh No I
00:40:59
gave couple of my rackets from Bon away um but yeah I don't use the same racket
00:41:07
because yanx has a new racket now so I'm using the new version of it um but yeah
00:41:13
it's it's the same model in a way but uh just new updated version yeah hey this
00:41:20
has been great um my show is sponsored by the generate kiwi saer scheme who are massive fans of yours um they've
00:41:26
actually reached out to you on Instagram they'd love to sponsor you and be involved with you um but one thing they
00:41:31
allow me to do with all my guests is um give you $500 to give to a charity of your choice as long as you answer a
00:41:36
couple of quick questions so what's your what's your charity of choice um well I'm currently a new
00:41:45
charity that I've been collaborating with and I'm now uh an ambassador of is
00:41:52
a sustainable coastlines uh they're from Oakland um and so they are um basically doing intelligence
00:42:03
litter litter intelligence um and it's a great way to kind of see you know what's
00:42:08
happening in our orders and how we can deal with it and uh just kind of paint a picture for everyone um to see and and
00:42:18
all of those information is kind of online and it's a great way to kind of because it is an important issue I think
00:42:25
um to to know about Plastics and and just sustainability um so that's probably
00:42:33
what I would pick with yeah awesome Al They luy to have you as an ambassador so $500 for that charity if you just answer
00:42:39
these quick questions uh Lulu son what is the best piece of advice you've been
00:42:43
given about money money uh invest it invest when you can um and spend it thoughtfully
00:42:55
on different types of Assets in a way but also um I'd say to spend it sometimes
00:43:05
for yourself yeah that was going to be my next question are you a spender or a saver more of a saver what's been your
00:43:13
worst money mistake have you bought anything stupid no no because I I I like you know
00:43:20
sometimes stupid things in a way like cute stickers or stuff like that stickers what do you mean uh well I like
00:43:28
like to get stickers or stationary and like little Trinkets and in a way you can say those are stupid things but I
00:43:36
don't know I like them so well if you if you're going to go to wimon and win
00:43:40
$700,000 you can buy yourself some bloody stickers if you want does does um money buy you
00:43:46
happiness no I don't think so um it's it's very all materialistic things and I
00:43:54
think you know you can buy certain things but you can't buy let's say time
00:44:02
you can't buy relationships in life um and and good quality relationships at
00:44:09
that so I think that's more important than materialistic things yeah that's a
00:44:13
great answer um this is a long way off for you um but when you retire not from tennis but just in you know from work
00:44:21
where would you like to retire you know I've some a lot of my friends have been asking me I have no
00:44:28
idea so I've like had couple of countries in my head but honestly no idea um I maybe potentially New Zealand
00:44:38
have a farm of my own who knows um but yeah I don't know and what's the best
00:44:45
thing about being a kiwi uh best thing about being a kiwi uh to have this massive
00:44:53
support um you know I'm from from the same country as all blacks uh we have pretty good I'd say we
00:45:04
have amazing nature and also a lot of fun things to do like skydiving um rafting those types of
00:45:13
things um and also our animals here l s $500 from the generate K we sa scheme to
00:45:21
your charity hey thank you so much for joining me today thank you so much really appreciate it good luck for 25
00:45:27
let's go thank you