New Zealand’s Lulu Sun Wins WTA Newcomer of The Year Award

Lulu Sun has won the prestigious Newcomer of the Year Award for 2024 at the WTA Player Awards.

At the close of the 2024 season, the WTA will honour the year's standout performers—recognizing exceptional players, coaches and tournaments—during WTA Awards Week, which begins today with the announcement of the Player Award winners.

The WTA had this to say about Lulu’s season:

"Newcomer of the Year Lulu Sun proved to be the breakout star of 2024, having been ranked outside the Top 200 in January before soaring to No. 40 by the year's end. She kicked off her incredible campaign by making her Grand Slam main draw debut at the Australian Open before enjoying more success at the majors with her first Top 10 win over No. 8 Zheng Qinwen as part of a quarterfinal run at Wimbledon as a qualifier (making history as the first New Zealand woman to reach that stage in the Open Era). Sun rounded out her season by reaching her first Tour final in Monterrey at the WTA 500 Abierto GNP Seguros and peaked in the PIF WTA Rankings at No. 39."

Sun triumphed over fellow nominees Erika Andreeva, Rebecca Sramkova, Zeynep Sonmez, and Sonay Kartal.

Elsewhere in the awards, Aryna Sabalenka took out Player of the Year, while NZ’s Erin Routliffe and her doubles partner Gaby Dabrowski were edged out for Doubles Team of the Year by Olympic gold medal winners Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini.

Former World No. 2 Paula Badosa won Comeback of the Year, and Emma Navarro was awarded Most Improved Player of the Year.

Sun is due to land in New Zealand soon ahead of the ASB Classic which begins on 30 December.

Header photo credit: Jimmie48/WTA