Kartal and Fery upset seeds in opening round

SONAY Kartal and Arthur Fery pulled off major upsets as Great Britain's large singles cohort made a brilliant start to the Wimbledon fortnight.

- ELEANOR CROOKS at the All England Club

British number three Kartal and wild card Fery took out the respective women’s and men’s 20th seeds, with the former beating Jelena Ostapenko 7-5, 2-6, 6-2 and the latter defeating Alexei Popyrin 6-4, 6-1, 4-6, 6-4.

For Fery, it is by a long distance the biggest victory of his life, with the 22-year-old’s only top-100 win before this coming against then 99th ranked David Goffin two years ago.

Fery, whose French father Loic owns Lorient football club, was not in the initial batch of wild cards named by the All England Club, having seen his ranking drop outside the top 400 because of injury, but a strong week at the Challenger event in Nottingham earlier this month earned him a pass.

He took advantage of it superbly to claim a first Wimbledon victory, and he will hope there is more to come with an unseeded opponent up next.

Kartal reached the third round as a qualifier 12 months ago, but her hopes of another good run appeared to have been dealt a blow when she drew seasoned grass-court campaigner Ostapenko in round one.