Emma Raducanu’s former junior rival Sonay Kartal becomes the star of the show
Sonay Kartal is providing one of the stories of 2025 at Wimbledon and now she is in line for a mega rankings boost after she secured her spot in the fourth round of a Grand Slam for the first time.
The 23-year-old from Brighton stormed into the last-16 after beating French qualifier Diane Parry 6-4, 6-2 and the win has had a big impact on her live ranking.
Kartal grew up alongside Emma Raducanu and the early YouTube clips of the duo playing against each other when they were 12-years-old were replayed time and again when Raducanu won the 2021 US Open.
At that point in this story, Kartal was the ‘other’ player caught up in the Raducanu hype machine and four years on, she is the star of the Wimbledon show.
This latest win against Parry has pushed Kartal above Raducanu in the live WTA Rankings and if she was to win her next match against Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, she would be British No 1 for the first time in her career.
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“I’m not going to lie, I was pretty nervous walking out there,” said Kartal, as she reflected on the biggest win of her career.
“It’s a big court with a match that has a lot of meaning to me. Last year, that was also in the back of my mind, losing to Coco (Gauff) on the same court in the same round.
“I tried to take everything I learnt from that match and put it into play on the court. Tried to relax as best as I could. Having a 4-1 lead down, just tried to get back on the scoreboard one by one.
“I think last year’s match helped me a lot. I think I left that court last year feeling like I didn’t play my best level because of the nerves I was carrying.
“I think today I just wanted to just try my best, to put them aside as best as I could. Obviously, it’s easier said than done, but I was just trying to relax myself and kind of relax the shoulders and I guess trying to hit through the ball much more.
“I think when you’re nervous, obviously your shoulders get a bit tight, the racquet feels heavy. You can de-accelerate, which sends the ball flying. Yeah, I was trying to rip the ball even harder.
“I think I was just clawing back one game at a time. When I got it level, I felt like I was pretty good. The nerves were gone. I just felt super comfortable out there.”
Kartal’s achievement of breaking into the top 50 of the WTA Rankings and possibly becoming British No 1 by winning her next match are all the more impressive when you consider she overcame a serious health problem at the start of 2024.
That could have affected her entire future in tennis, but she has recovered and rebuilt her life and career to reach a point where she is the British player everyone is talking about at Wimbledon.
“I think it’s an honour to be the player people are looking at,” she added.
“Obviously, you’ve got a lot of attention on you, it means you’re doing good things. No, I’m pretty calm and pretty collected. I don’t think it’s going to affect me too much. But no, I’m just enjoying it all. I’ll still pretty young. It’s my first fourth round.
“Yeah, I feel like I’m going to go out on the court in the next round kind of with nothing to lose at the minute. I’m going to go swinging. I think the pressure that I’ll feel is the pressure I will be putting on myself just wanting to perform as best as I can.”
Maximising your potential is an achievement for any athlete and while Kartal may not win Wimbledon or even reach a Grand Slam final, her gutsy story over the last 18 months confirms she is a champion to compare with the greats of the game on so many levels.
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